The passage in the post title is an oddity from Sam’s speech in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which he explains to Arthur and Emily Shelby how Eliza escaped from Haley. This is the earliest version. Though other versions differ slightly, no authoritative version restores what seems to be missing, the “of.” Here are the versions:
and thar she was, clar over tother side the current on the ice, and then on she went, (National Era 113)
and thar she was, clar over t’ other side the current, on the ice, and then on she went, (Jewett, 1852, I: 112)
and thar she was, clar over t’ other side the current, on the ice, and then on she went, (Jewett Million, 1852, 31)
and thar she was, clar over t’other side the current, on the ice, and then on she went, (Jewett Illustrated, 1853, 101)
and thar she was, clar over t’ other side the current, on the ice, and then on she went, (Houghton Osgood, 1879, 89)
I assume that Sam elided the “of,” and Stowe intended it to be elided, and stuck with it. And, by the way, Stowe’s adaptation for Mary Webb’s dramatic reading, The Christian Slave (in the ILL copy I’ve borrowed) also lacks the “of.”
Project Gutenberg proofreaders can’t stand it. So go to Google, and search for two versions of the phrase, with and without the “of,” in quotes. And then search Google Books. The public’s corrected electronic text of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, more often than not, restores the “of,” which is not missing.
