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484            UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; OR
CHAPTER XXXVII.
LIBERTY.
" No matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the God sink together in the dust, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and dis­enthralled, by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation." — Curran.
Awhile we must leave Tom in the hands of his perse­cutors, while we turn to pursue the fortunes of George and his wife, whom we left in friendly hands, in a farm-house on the roadside.
Tom Loker we left groaning and tousling in a most immaculately clean Quaker bed, under the motherly super­vision of Aunt Dorcas, who found him to the full as trac­table a patient as a sick bison.
Imagine a tall, dignified, spiritual woman, whose clear muslin cap shades waves of silvery hair, parted on a broad, clear forehead, which overarches thoughtful gray eyes. A snowy handkerchief of lisse crape is folded neatly across her bosom, her glossy brown silk dress rustles peacefully, as she glides up and down the chamber.
" The devil! " says Tom Loker, giving a great throw to the bedclothes.
"I must request thee, Thomas, not to use such lan­guage," says Aunt Dorcas, as she quietly rearranged the bed.
" Well, I won't, granny, if I can help it," says Tom; " but it is enough to make a fellow swear, — so cursedly hot! "
Dorcas removed a comforter from the bed, straightened the clothes again, and tucked them in till Tom looked something like a chrysalis; remarking, as she did so, —