oke. Then I knew
that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and witches were dancing
in the valleys; and the light of the Eye was red! I am the great Dr.
Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston! I called my black cat up and
told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, and she smelled, and she
smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and she smelled! And presently
her hair stood up like bristles, and her eyes shot out sparks of fire,
and her tail was as stiff as iron!" He threw his shoulders back, looked
imposingly around and repeated: "I am the great Dr. Rutherford the
witch-doctor of Boston! My black Cat tells me that the witch is
here--that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your cabin-doors, and
your blood is turning to water. You are beginning to wither away. You
shiver in the sunshine; you don't want to eat; your hearts are heavy and
you don't feel like work; and when you come from the field you don't
take down the banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in
the corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep, but you
know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast hers on you
through the chinks in the cabin-wall."

"Dat's me!" said Mercy--"dat certny is me!"

"Gret day in de mornin', mas' witch-doctor! How you know? Is you been
tricked?" inquired Martha, who, having been reared on the plantation,
was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at lectures.

Wash groaned heavily, and shook his head from side to side in silent
commendation of the doctor's lore.

"My black cat tells me that the witch is here; and she _is_ here!"
(Immense sensation among the children of Ham.) "But," continued he with
a majestic wave of the arm, "she can do you no harm, for I _also_ am
here, the great Dr. Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!"

"Doctor," inquired Edward in a loud voice, "can you tell who is conjured
and who is not?"

"I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of plagiarism and the
satellites of hygienic art as expunged by the gyrations of nebular
hypothesis. Await ye!" He and Mr, Smith went into the house.

The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive reverence for
grandiloquent language, and the less they understand of it the better
they like it.

"What dat he say, honey?" asked old Mammy. "I can't heer like I used
ter."

"He says he will be back soon, Mammy, and tell if any of you are
tricked," said I; and just then Edward and the doctor reappeared,
b