In one corner of it stood a bed, covered neatly with a snowy spread; and
by the side of it was a piece of carpeting, of some considerable size.
On this piece of carpeting Aunt Chloe took her stand, as being decidedly
in the upper walks of life; and it and the bed by which it lay, and the
whole corner, in fact, were treated with distinguished consideration,
and made, so far as possible, sacred from the marauding inroads
and desecrations of little folks. In fact, that corner was the
_drawing-room_ of the establishment. In the other corner was a bed of
much humbler pretensions, and evidently designed for _use_. The wall
over the fireplace was adorned with some very brilliant scriptural
prints, and a portrait of General Washington, drawn and colored in
a manner which would certainly have astonished that hero, if ever he
happened to meet with its like.

On a rough bench in the corner, a couple of woolly-headed boys,
with glistening black eyes and fat shining cheeks, were busy in
superintending the first walking operations of the baby, which, as
is usually the case, consisted in getting up on its feet, balancing a
moment, and then tumbling down,--each successive failure being violently
cheered, as something decidedly clever.

A table, somewhat rheumatic in its limbs, was drawn out in front of
the fire, and covered with a cloth, displaying cups and saucers of a
decidedly brilliant pattern, with other symptoms of an approaching meal.
At this table was seated Uncle Tom, Mr. Shelby's best hand, who, as he
is to be the hero of our story, we must daguerreotype for our readers.
He was a large, broad-chested, powerfully-made man, of a full glossy
black, and a face whose truly African features were characterized by an
expression of grave and steady good sense, united with much kindliness