tJNOLB  TOM's  CABIN  AS  FT  18.  163

Not  60  with  the  others.  Hilaritj  with  them  struck
on  a  higher  key.  Their  very  souls  leaped  with  joy :
their  hearts  abounded  with  gratitude ;  and  various  were
the  expressions  of  thanks  for  this  surprise.  Uncon-
Bcious  of  deserving  this  increased  favor  of  their  master,
they  imputed  it  entirely  to  a  warm,  lofty  generosity ;
and  the  chain  which  held  them  to  the  plantation  ap-
peared in  a  different  aspect.  They  forgot  bondage,  and
enjoyed  freedom  tTiere.  K.our  reader  had  passed
along  the  highway,  which  skirted  the  green,  Tie  would
have  been  surprised,  also,  to  see  how  jovial  they  passed
the  hour;  and,  perhaps,  would  have  wondered  at  that
matchless  and  enduring  order  of  Providence  which
dispenses,  in  its  wisdom,  favors  to  mankind,  most  curi-
ously graduated  to  all  lots,  mitids,  inclinations,  and
dispositions.  And  if  he  was  a  philanthropist,  those
chords  of  sympathy  which  permeate  the  heart  of  stich  a
being,  would  have  been  attuned  by  this  unexpected
revelation  of  one  of  the  happy  phases  in  the  life  of  the
slave  ;  and  involuntarily  he  would  have  joined  in  the
chorus,  as  Hector  and  his  jolly  companions  danced  to
the  music,  which,  time  and  again  for  years,  had  made
the  hills  and  dells  of  Virginia  vocal  with  its  merry
notes.
./"


164  LIFE  AT  THE  80CTU  ;   OR


CHAPTER  X.
INDEPENDENCE  DAY.
"  Let  India  boast  her  grores,  nor  envy  we.
The  WGoping  amber  and  the  balmy  tree."

On  the  day  following  the  increase  of  the  wages,  Mr.
