hymns and
expressions of a vivid and pictorial nature; and, as they sung,
some laughed, and some cried, and some clapped hands, or shook hands
rejoicingly with each other, as if they had fairly gained the other side
of the river.

Various exhortations, or relations of experience, followed, and
intermingled with the singing. One old gray-headed woman, long past
work, but much revered as a sort of chronicle of the past, rose, and
leaning on her staff, said--"Well, chil'en! Well, I'm mighty glad to
hear ye all and see ye all once more, 'cause I don't know when I'll be
gone to glory; but I've done got ready, chil'en; 'pears like I'd got
my little bundle all tied up, and my bonnet on, jest a waitin' for the
stage to come along and take me home; sometimes, in the night, I think
I hear the wheels a rattlin', and I'm lookin' out all the time; now, you
jest be ready too, for I tell ye all, chil'en," she said striking her
staff hard on the floor, "dat ar _glory_ is a mighty thing! It's a
mighty thing, chil'en,--you don'no nothing about it,--it's _wonderful_."
And the old creature sat down, with streaming tears, as wholly overcome,
while the whole circle struck up--

_"O Canaan, bright Canaan
I'm bound for the land of Canaan."_

Mas'r George, by request, read the last chapters of Revelation, often
interrupted by such exclamations as "The _sakes_ now!" "Only hear that!"
"Jest think on 't!" "Is all that a comin' sure enough?"

George, who was a bright boy, and well trained in religious things by
his mother, finding himself an object of general admiration, threw
in expositions of his own, from time to time, with a commendable
seriousness and gravity, for which he was admired by the young and
blessed by the old; and it was agreed, on all hands, that "a minister
couldn't lay it off better than he did; that 't was reely 'mazin'!"

Uncle Tom was a sort of patriarch in religious matters, in the
neighborhood. Having, naturally, an organization in which the
_morale_ was strongly predominant, together with a greater breadth and
cultivation of mind than obtained among his companions, he was looked up
to with great respect, as a sort of minister among them; and the simple,
hearty, sincere style of his exhortations might have edified even better
educated persons. But it was in prayer that he especially excelled.
Nothing could exceed the touching simplicity, the childlike earnestness,
of his prayer, enriched with the language of