This, indeed, was a home,—home,—a
word that George had never yet known a meaning for;
and a belief in God, and trust in his providence,
began to encircle his heart, as, with a golden cloud
of protection and confidence, dark, misanthropic,
pining atheistic doubts, and fierce despair, melted
away before the light of a living Gospel, breathed
in living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious
acts of love and good will, which, like the cup of
cold water given in the name of a disciple, shall
never lose their reward.
“Father, what if thee should get found out again?”
said Simeon second, as he buttered his cake.
“I should pay my fine,” said Simeon, quietly.
“But what if they put thee in prison?”
“Couldn’t thee and mother manage the farm?”
said Simeon, smiling.
“Mother can do almost everything,” said
the boy. “But isn’t it a shame to
make such laws?”
“Thee mustn’t speak evil of thy rulers,
Simeon,” said his father, gravely. “The
Lord only gives us our worldly goods that we may do
justice and mercy; if our rulers require a price of
us for it, we must deliver it up.
“Well, I hate those old slaveholders!”
said the boy, who felt as unchristian as became any
modern reformer.
“I am surprised at thee, son,” said Simeon;
“thy mother never taught thee so. I would
do even the same for the slaveholder as for the slave,
if the Lord brought him to my door in affliction.”
Simeon second blushed scarlet; but his mother only
smiled, and said, “Simeon is my good boy; he
will grow older, by and by, and then he will be like
his father.”
“I hope, my good sir, that you are not exposed
to any difficulty on our account,” said George,
anxiously.
“Fear nothing, George, for therefore are we
sent into the world. If we would not meet trouble
for a good cause, we were not worthy of our name.”
“But, for me,” said George, “I
could not bear it.”
“Fear not, then, friend George; it is not for
thee, but for God and man, we do it,” said Simeon.
“And now thou must lie by quietly this day, and
tonight, at ten o’clock, Phineas Fletcher will
carry thee onward to the next stand,—thee
and the rest of they company. The pursuers are
hard after thee; we must not delay.”
“If that is the case, why wait till evening?”
said George.
“Thou art safe here by daylight, for every one
in the settlement is a Friend, and all are watching.
It has been found safer to travel by night.”
Evangeline
“A young star!
which shone
O’er life—too
sweet an image, for such glass!
A lovely being, scarcely
formed or moulded;
A rose with all its
sweetest leaves yet folded.”
The Mississippi! How, as by an enchanted wand,
have its scenes been changed, since Chateaubriand
wrote his prose-poetic description of it,* as a river
of mighty, unbroken solitudes, rolling amid undreamed
wonders of vegetable and animal existence.
