aid Pete, "and let 'em all
down in de middle of de singin'; dat ar was failin', warnt it?"

During this aside between Mose and Pete, two empty casks had been rolled
into the cabin, and being secured from rolling, by stones on each side,
boards were laid across them, which arrangement, together with the
turning down of certain tubs and pails, and the disposing of the rickety
chairs, at last completed the preparation.

"Mas'r George is such a beautiful reader, now, I know he'll stay to
read for us," said Aunt Chloe; "'pears like 't will be so much more
interestin'."

George very readily consented, for your boy is always ready for anything
that makes him of importance.

The room was soon filled with a motley assemblage, from the old
gray-headed patriarch of eighty, to the young girl and lad of fifteen. A
little harmless gossip ensued on various themes, such as where old Aunt
Sally got her new red headkerchief, and how "Missis was a going to give
Lizzy that spotted muslin gown, when she'd got her new berage made up;"
and how Mas'r Shelby was thinking of buying a new sorrel colt, that was
going to prove an addition to the glories of the place. A few of the
worshippers belonged to families hard by, who had got permission to
attend, and who brought in various choice scraps of information, about
the sayings and doings at the house and on the place, which circulated
as freely as the same sort of small change does in higher circles.

After a while the singing commenced, to the evident delight of all
present. Not even all the disadvantage of nasal intonation could prevent
the effect of the naturally fine voices, in airs at once wild and
spirited. The words were sometimes the well-known and common hymns
sung in the churches about, and sometimes of a wilder, more indefinite
character, picked up at camp-meetings.

The chorus of one of them, which ran as follows, was sung with great
energy and unction:

_"Die on the field of battle,
Die on the field of battle,
Glory in my soul."_

Another special favorite had oft repeated the words--

_"O, I'm going to glory,--won't you come along with me?
Don't you see the angels beck'ning, and a calling me away?
Don't you see the golden city and the everlasting day?"_

There were others, which made incessant mention of "Jordan's banks,"
and "Canaan's fields," and the "New Jerusalem;" for the negro mind,
impassioned and imaginative, always attaches itself to