"Now, Henry," says the mother, "look out and see if father is coming along the street;" and she begins filling the little black tea−kettle, which is soon set singing on the stove.
From the inner room now daughter Mary, a well−grown girl of thirteen, brings the baby, just roused from a nap, and very impatient to renew his acquaintance with his mamma.
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THE TWO ALTARS; OR, TWO PICTURES IN ONE
"Bless his bright eyes! mother will take him," ejaculates the busy little woman, whose hands are by this time in a very floury condition, in the incipient stages of wetting up biscuit, "in a minute;" and she quickly frees herself from the flour and paste, and, deputing Mary to roll out her biscuit, proceeds to the consolation and succor of young master.
"Now, Henry," says the mother, "you'll have time, before supper, to take that basket of clothes up to Mr.
Sheldin's; put in that nice bill that you made out last night. I shall give you a cent for every bill you write out for me. What a comfort it is, now, for one's children to be gettin' learnin' so."
Henry shouldered the basket and passed out the door, just as a neatly dressed colored man walked up with his pail and whitewash brushes.
"Oh, you've come, father, have you? Mary, are the biscuits in? You may as well set the table now. Well, George, what's the news?"
"Nothing, only a pretty smart day's work. I've brought home five dollars, and shall have as much as I can do, these two weeks;" and the man, having washed his hands, proceeded to count out his change on the ironing−table.
"Well, it takes you to bring in the money," said the delighted wife; "nobody but you could turn off that much in a day."
"Well, they do say those that's had me once that they never want any other hand to take hold in their rooms. I s'pose it's a kinder practice I've got, and kinder natural."
"Tell ye what," said the little woman, taking down the family strong box, to wit, the china teapot aforenamed, and pouring the contents on the table, "we're getting mighty rich now! We can afford to get Henry his new Sunday cap, and Mary her mousseline−de−laine dress Take care, baby, you rogue!" she hastily interposed, as young master made a dive at a dollar bill, for his share in the proceeds.
"He wants something, too, I suppose," said the father; "let him get his hand in while he's young."
The baby gazed, with round, astonished eyes, while mother, with some difficulty, rescued the bill from his grasp; but, before any one could at all anticipate his purpose, he dashed in among the small change with such zeal as to send it flying all over the table.
"Hurrah! Bob's a smasher!" said the father, delighted; "he'll make it fly, he thinks;" and, taking the baby on his knee, he laughed merrily as Mary and her mother pursued the rolling coin all over the room.
"He knows now, as well as can be that he's been doing mischief," said the delighted mother, as the baby kicked and crowed uproariously; "he's such a forward child, now, to be only six months old! Oh, you've no idea, father, how mischievous he grows;" and therewith the little woman began to roll and tumble the little mischief−maker about, uttering divers frightful threats, which appeared to contribute, in no small degree, to the general hilarity.
"Come, come, Mary," said the mother at last, with a sudden burst of recollection; "you must n't be always on your knees fooling with this child! Look in the oven at them biscuits."
"They're done exactly, mother, just the brown!" and, with the word, the mother dumped baby on to his father's knee, where he sat contentedly munching a very ancient crust of bread, occasionally improving the flavor thereof by rubbing it on his father's coat−sleeve.
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"What have you got in that blue dish there?" said George, when the whole little circle were seated around the table.
"Well, now, what do you suppose?" said the little woman, delighted; "a quart of nice oysters, just for a treat, you know. I would n't tell you till this minute," said she, raising the cover.
"Well," said George , "we both work hard for our money, and we don't owe anybody a cent; and why should n't we have our treats, now and then, as well as rich folks?"
And gayly passed the supper−hour; the tea−kettle sung, the baby crowed, and all chatted and laughed abundantly.
"I'll tell you," said George, wiping his mouth; "wife, these times are quite another thing from what it used to be down in Georgia. I remember then old mas'r used to hire me out by the year; and one time, I remember, I came and paid him in two hundred dollars, every cent I'd taken. He just looked it over, counted it, and put it in his pocket−book, and said, 'You are a good boy, George,' and he gave me half a dollar!"
"I want to know, now!" said his wife.
"Yes, he did, and that was every cent I ever got of it; and, I tell you, I was mighty bad off for clothes, them times."
"Well, well, the Lord be praised, they're over, and you are in a free country now!" said the wife, as she rose thoughtfully from the table, and brought her husband the great Bible. The little circle were ranged around the stove for evening prayers.
"Henry, my boy, you must read you are a better reader than your father thank God, that let you learn early!"
The boy, with a cheerful readiness, read, "The Lord is my Shepherd," and the mother gently stilled the noisy baby to listen to the holy words. Then all kneeled, while the father, with simple earnestness, poured out his soul to God.
They had but just risen the words of Christian hope and trust scarce died on their lips when, lo! the door was burst open, and two men entered; and one of them, advancing, laid his hand on the father's shoulder.
"This is the fellow," said he.
"You are arrested in the name of the United States!" said the other.
"Gentlemen, what is this?" said the poor man, trembling.
"Are you not the property of Mr. B., of Georgia?" said the officer.
"Gentlemen, I've been a free, hard−working man these ten years."
"Yes, but you are arrested, on suit of Mr. B., as his slave."
Shall we describe the leave−taking, the sorrowing wife, the dismayed children, the tears, the anguish, that simple, honest, kindly home, in a moment so desolated? Ah, ye who defend this because it is law, think for one hour what if this that happens to your poor brother should happen to you!
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It was a crowded court−room, and the man stood there to be tried for life? no, but for the life of life for liberty!
Lawyers hurried to and fro, buzzing, consulting, bringing authorities, all anxious, zealous, engaged, for what? To save a fellow man from bondage? No; anxious and zealous lest he might escape; full of zeal to deliver him over to slavery. The poor man's anxious eyes follow vainly the busy course of affairs, from which he dimly learns that he is to be sacrificed on the altar of the Union; and that his heart−break and anguish, and the tears of his wife, and the desolation of his children are, in the eyes of these well−informed men, only the bleat of a sacrifice, bound to the horns of the glorious American altar!
Again it is a bright day, and business walks brisk in this market. Senator and statesman, the learned and patriotic, are out, this day, to give their countenance to an edifying and impressive and truly American spectacle, the sale of a man! All the preliminaries of the scene are there: dusky−browed mothers, looking with sad eyes while speculators are turning round their children, looking at their teeth, and feeling of their arms; a poor, old, trembling woman, helpless, half blind, whose last child is to be sold, holds on to her bright boy with trembling hands. Husbands and wives, sisters and friends, all soon to be scattered like the chaff of the threshing−floor, look sadly on each other with poor nature's last tears; and among them walk briskly glib, oily politicians, and thriving men of law, letters, and religion, exceedingly sprightly an
d in good spirits for why? it is n't they that are going to be sold; it's only somebody else. And so they are very comfortable, and look on the whole thing as quite a matter−of−course affair, and, as it is to be conducted to−day, a decidedly valuable and judicious exhibition.
And now, after so many hearts and souls have been knocked and thumped this way and that by the auctioneer's hammer, comes the instructive part of the whole; and the husband and father, whom we saw in his simple home, reading and praying with his children, and rejoicing in the joy of his poor ignorant heart that he lived in a free country, is now set up to be admonished of his mistake.
Now there is a great excitement, and pressing to see, and exultation and approbation; for it is important and interesting to see a man put down that has tried to be a free man.
"That's he, is it? Could n't come it, could he?" says one.
"No; and he will never come it, that's more," says another triumphantly.
"I don't generally take much interest in scenes of this nature," says a grave representative; "but I came here today for the sake of the principle!"
"Gentlemen," says the auctioneer, "we've got a specimen here that some of your Northern abolitionists would give any price for; but they sha'n't have him! no! we've looked out for that. The man that buys him must give bonds never to sell him to go North again!"
"Go it!" shout the crowd; "good! good! hurrah!"
"An impressive idea!" says a Senator; "a noble maintaining of principle!" and the man is bid off, and the hammer falls with a last crash on his heart, his hopes, his manhood, and he lies a bleeding wreck on the altar of Liberty!
Such was the altar in 1776; such is the altar in 1850!
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Document Outline
Table of Contents
THE TWO ALTARS; OR, TWO PICTURES IN ONE Harriet Beecher Stowe
I. The Altar of Liberty, or 1776
II. The Altar of -, or 1850
The Two Altars; Or, Two Pictures in One Page 2