Page:Uncle Tom's cabin; or, Life among the lowly (IA uncletomscabinor00stow).pdf/105



Eliza made her desperate retreat across the river just in the dusk of twilight. The gray mist of evening, rising slowly from the river, enveloped her as she disappeared up the bank, and the swollen current and floundering masses of ice presented a hopeless barrier between her and her pursuer. Haley therefore slowly and discontentedly returned to the little tavern, to ponder further what was to be done. The woman opened to him the door of a little parlor, covered with a rag carpet, where stood a table with a very shining black oilcloth, sundry lank, high-backed wood chairs, with some plaster images in resplendent colors on the mantelshelf, above a very dimly-smoking grate; a long hard wood settle extended its uneasy length by the chimney, and here Haley sat him down to meditate on the instability of human hopes and happiness in general.