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Tom always spoke reverently of the Quakers. Nice people, he would say; wanted to convert me, but couldnt come it, exactly. But, tell ye what, stranger, they do fix up a sick fellow first rate,no mistake. Make jist the tallest kind o broth and knicknacks. As Tom had informed them that their party would be looked for in Sandusky, it was thought prudent to divide them. Jim, with his old mother, was forwarded separately; and a night or two after, George and Eliza, with their child, were driven privately into Sandusky, and lodged beneath a hospital roof, preparatory to taking their last passage on the lake. Their night was now far spent, and the morning star of liberty rose fair before them!electric word! What is it? Is there anything more in it than a namea rhetorical flourish? Why, men and women of America, does your hearts blood thrill at that word, for which your fathers bled, and your braver mothers were willing that their noblest and best should die? Is there anything in it glorious and dear for a nation, that is not also glorious and dear for a man? What is freedom to a nation, but freedom to the individuals in it? What is freedom to that young man, who sits there, with his arms folded over his broad chest, the tint of African blood in his cheek, its dark fires in his eyes,what is freedom to George Harris? To your fathers, freedom was the right of a nation to be a nation. To him, it is the right of a man to be a man, and not a brute; the right to call the wife of his bosom is wife, and to protect her from lawless violence; the right to protect and educate his child; the right to have a home of his own, a religion of his own, a character of his own, unsubject to the will of another. All these thoughts were rolling and seething in Georges breast, as he was pensively leaning his head on his hand, watching his wife, as she was adapting to her slender and pretty form the articles of mans attire, in which it was deemed safest she should make her escape. Now for it, said she, as she stood before the glass, and shook down her silky abundance of black curly hair. I say, George, its almost a pity, isnt it, she said, as she held up some of it, playfully,pity its all got to come off? George smiled sadly, and made no answer. Eliza turned to the glass, and the scissors glittered as one long lock after another was detached from her head. There, now, thatll do, she said, taking up a hair-brush; now for a few fancy touches. There, ant I a pretty young fellow? she said, turning around to her husband, laughing and blushing at the same time. You always will be pretty, do what you will, said George. What does make you so sober? said Eliza, kneeling on one knee, and laying her hand on his. We are only within twenty-four hours of Canada, they say. Only a day and a night on the lake, and thenoh, then! O, Eliza! said George, drawing her towards him; that is it! Now my fate is all narrowing down to a point. To come so near, to be almost in sight, and then lose all. I should never live under it, Eliza. Dont fear, said his wife, hopefully. The good Lord would not have brought us so far, if he didnt mean to carry us through. I seem to feel him with us, George. You are a blessed woman, Eliza! said George, clasping her with a convulsive grasp. But,oh, tell me! can this great mercy be for us? Will these years and years of misery come to an end?shall we be free? |
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