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34 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR
tion no whit abated the merriment, till every one had roared and tumbled and danced themselves down to a state of composure.
" Well, now, I hopes you 're done," said Aunt Chloe. who had been busy in pulling out a rude box of a trundle-bed ; " and now, you Mose and you Pete, get into thar; for we 's goin' to have the meetin'."
" Oh, mother, we don't wanter. We wants to sit up to meetin', — meetin's is so curis. We likes 'em."
" La, Aunt Chloe, shove it under, and let 'em sit up,' said Mas'r George, decisively, giving a push to the rude machine.
Aunt Chloe, having thus saved appearances, seemed highly delighted to push the thing under, saying, as she did so, " Well, mebbe 't will do 'em some good."
The house now resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to consider the accommodations and arrangements for the meeting.
" What we 's to do for cheers, now, / declar I don't know," said Aunt Chloe. As the meeting had been held at Uncle Tom's, weekly, for an indefinite length of time, without any more " cheers," there seemed some encouragement to hope that a way would be discovered at present.
" Old Uncle Peter sung both de legs out of dat oldest cheer, last week," suggested Mose.
" You go long ! I '11 boun' you pulled 'em out; some o' your shines," said Aunt Chloe.
u Well, it '11 stand, if it only keeps jam up agin de wall! " said Mose.
" Den Uncle Peter mus' n't sit in it, cause he al'ays hitches when he gets a-singing. He hitched pretty nigh across de room, t' other night," said Pete.
" Good Lor ! get him in it, then," said Mose, " and den he 'd begin, ' Come saints and sinners, hear me tell,' and den down he 'd go," — and Mose imitated precisely the nasal tones of the old man, tumbling on the floor, to illustrate the supposed catastrophe. |
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