't a-sent him. O, bless de Lord! bless de Lord!" "And
what duz he call his paper boat?" "Maria Theresa," I replied. "Maria
Truss Her," cried the orator. "He calls her Maria Truss Her. Berry good,
berry good name; kase he truss his life in her ebry day, and dat's why
he calls his little boat Truss Her. Yes, de Yankee-mans makes de
gunboats and de paper boats. Has de gemmin from de norf any bacca for
dis yere chile?"

As the women had become very piously inclined, and were in just the
state of nervous excitement to commence "de shoutings," old Uncle Seba
rudely informed them that "de Yankee-mans wants sleep," and cleared the
room of the crowd, to my great relief, for the state of the atmosphere
was beyond description. Seba had a closet where he kept onions, muskrat
skins, and other pieces of personal property. He now set his wife to
sweeping it out, and I spread my clean blankets with a sigh upon the
black floor, knowing I should carry away in the morning more than I had
brought into Seba's dwelling.

I will not now expatiate upon the small annoyances of travel; but to the
canoeist who may follow the southern watercourses traversed by the paper
canoe, I would quietly say, "Keep away from cabins of all kinds, and you
will by so doing travel with a light heart and even temper."

When I cast up my account with old Seba the next morning, he said that
by trading the rice he raised he could obtain "bout ebbry ting he
wanted, 'cept rum." Rum was his medicine. So long as he kept a little
stowed away, he admitted he was often sick. Having been destitute of
cash, and consequently of rum for some time, he acknowledged his state
of health remarkable; and he was a model of strength and manly
development. All the other negroes were dwarfish-looking specimens,
while their hair was so very short that it gave them the appearance of
being bald.

When the canoe was taken out of the storehouse to be put into the canal,
these half-naked, ebony-skinned creatures swarmed about it like bees.
Not a trace of white blood could be detected in them. Each tried to put
a finger upon the boat. They seemed to regard it as a Fetich; and, I
believe, had it been placed upon an end they would have bowed down and
paid their African devotions to it. Only the oldest ones could speak
English well enough to be understood. The youths chattered in African
tongue, and wore talismans about their necks. They were, to say the
least, verging on barbarism. The experi