 | Uncle Tom's Cabin |  |
SCENE I
Dark landscape. An old, roofless shed. Tom is discovered in shed, lying on some
old cotton bagging. Cassy kneels by his side, holding a cup to his lips.
Drink all ye want. I knew how it would be. It isn't the first time I've been
out in the night, carrying water to such as you.
TOM:
(Returning cup.)
Thank you, missis.
CASSY:
Don't call me missis. I'm a miserable slave like yourself—a lower
one than you can ever be! It's no use, my poor fellow, this you've been trying to
do. You were a brave fellow. You had the right on your side; but it's all in vain
for you to struggle. You are in the Devil's hands; he is the strongest, and you
must give up.
TOM:
Oh! how can I give up?
CASSY:
You see you don't know anything about it; I do. Here you are, on a
lone plantation, ten miles from any other, in the swamps; not a white person
here who could testify, if you were burned alive. There's no law here that can do
you, or any of us, the least good; and this man! there's no earthly thing that he is
not bad enough to do. I could make one's hair rise, and their teeth chatter, if I
should only tell what I've seen and been knowing to here; and it's no use
resisting! Did I want to live with him? Wasn't I a woman delicately bred? and
he!—Father in Heaven! what was he and is he? And yet I've lived with him
these five years, and cursed every moment of my life, night and day.
TOM:
Oh heaven! have you quite forgot us poor critters?
CASSY:
And what are these miserable low dogs you work with, that you
should suffer on their account? Every one of them would turn against you the
first time they get a chance. They are all of them as low and cruel to each other
as they can be; there's no use in your suffering to keep from hurting them?
TOM:
What made 'em cruel? If I give out I shall get used to it and grow,
little by little, just like 'em. No, no, Missis, I've lost everything, wife, and
children, and home, and a kind master, and he would have set me free if he'd
only lived a day longer—I've lost everything in this world, and now I can't lose
heaven, too: no I can't get to be wicked besides all.
CASSY:
But it can't be that He will lay sin to our account; he won't charge
it to us when we are forced to it; he'll charge it to them that drove us to it. Can I
[Description: 916EAF. Page 126.]
TOM:
Oh missis! I wish you'd go to Him who can give you living waters!
CASSY:
Go to him! Where is he? Who is he?
TOM:
Our Heavenly Father!
CASSY:
I used to see the picture of him, over the altar, when I was a girl but
he isn't here! there's nothing here but sin, and long, long despair! There, there,
don't talk any more, my poor fellow. Try to sleep, if you can. I must hasten
back, lest my absence be noted. Think of me when I am gone, Uncle Tom, and
pray, pray for me.
(Music. Exit Cassy. Tom sinks back to sleep.)
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | |