No, I can't rest to-night. This
is my working time, and I must be up and doing." He reached for the rusty
old lantern behind the door, and lighted it, laughing as he did so. His
face was pale, and there was a nervous tremor in his hands, but his voice
had lost none of its old heartiness. "Ah, that's it, old man," he said,
when the light was ready. "We'll shake hands in case it's a long parting.
This is a jolly world. Uncle Levi,--good-by, and God bless you," and,
leaving the old man speechless on the hearth, he closed the door and went
out into the night.
On the turnpike again, with the lantern swinging in his hand, he walked
rapidly in the direction of the tavern road, throwing quick flashes of
light before his footsteps. Behind him he heard the falling of free Levi's
hammer, and knew that the old negro was toiling at his rude forge for the
bread which he would to-morrow eat in freedom.
With the word he tossed back his hair and quickened his steps, as if he
were leaving servitude behind him in the house at Chericoke; and, as the
anger blazed up within his heart he found pleasure in the knowledge that at
last he was starting out to level his own road. Under the clouds on the
long turnpike it all seemed so easy--as easy as the falling of free Levi's
hammer, which had faded in the distance.
What was it, after all? A year or two of struggle and of attainment, and he
would come back flushed with success, to clasp Betty in his arms.
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