I'm up to all that sort o' thing," said he, pointing to two or three
goodly rifles over the mantel-piece; "and most people that know me know
that 't wouldn't be healthy to try to get anybody out o' my house when
I'm agin it. So _now_ you jist go to sleep now, as quiet as if yer
mother was a rockin' ye," said he, as he shut the door.

"Why, this is an uncommon handsome un," he said to the senator. "Ah,
well; handsome uns has the greatest cause to run, sometimes, if they has
any kind o' feelin, such as decent women should. I know all about that."

The senator, in a few words, briefly explained Eliza's history.

"O! ou! aw! now, I want to know?" said the good man, pitifully;
"sho! now sho! That's natur now, poor crittur! hunted down now like a
deer,--hunted down, jest for havin' natural feelin's, and doin' what no
kind o' mother could help a doin'! I tell ye what, these yer things make
me come the nighest to swearin', now, o' most anything," said honest
John, as he wiped his eyes with the back of a great, freckled, yellow
hand. "I tell yer what, stranger, it was years and years before I'd jine
the church, 'cause the ministers round in our parts used to preach that
the Bible went in for these ere cuttings up,--and I couldn't be up to
'em with their Greek and Hebrew, and so I took up agin 'em, Bible and
all. I never jined the church till I found a minister that was up to 'em
all in Greek and all that, and he said right the contrary; and then I
took right hold, and jined the church,--I did now, fact," said John, who
had been all this time uncorking some very frisky bottled cider, which
at this juncture he presented.

"Ye'd better jest put up here, now, till daylight," said he, heartily,
"and I'll call up the old woman, and have a bed got ready for you in no