of retiring to the seclusion of her cabin
while all this was going on was simply preposterous, and Mammy at once
exhibited the soothing effect of the suggestion; so the play proceeded.

More white powders. Then Apollo's turned black, and, poor fellow! when
it did so, he might have been a god or a demon, or anything else you
never saw, for his face looked little like that of a human being, giving
you the impression only of wildly-rolling eyeballs, and great white
teeth glistening in a ghastly, feeble, almost idiotic grin.

Edward went up to him and laid his hand on his shoulder: "That's all
right, my boy. We'll have you straight in no time, and you will be the
best man at the shucking to-morrow night."

More white powders. Then came Wash, great big Wash; and when his powder
changed, what do you suppose he did? Well, he just fainted outright.

The remaining powders retaining their color, and Wash having been
restored to consciousness, Dr. Rutherford directed him to a clump of
chinquapin bushes near the "big gate" at the entrance of the plantation.
There he would find a flat stone. Beneath this stone he would find
thirteen grains of moulding corn and some goat's hair. These he was to
bring back with him. Under the first rail near the same gate Mercy would
find: a dead frog with its eyes torn out, and across the road in the
hollow of a stump Apollo was to look for a muskrat's tail and a weasel's
paw. They went off reluctantly, the entire _corps de plantation_
following, and soon they all came scampering back, trampling down the
ox-eyed daisies and jamming each other against the corners of the rail
fence, for, sure enough, the witch's treasures had been found, but not a
soul had dared to touch them. Dr. Rutherford sternly ordered them back,
but all hands hung fire, and their countenances evinced resistance of
such a stubborn character that Edward at length volunteered to go with
them. Then it was all right, and presently returned the most laughable
procession that was ever seen--Wash with his arms at right angles,
bearing his grains of moulding grain on a burdock leaf which he held at
as great a distance as the size of the leaf and the length of his arms
would admit, his neck craned out and his eyes so glued to the uncanny
corn that he stumbled over every stick and stone that lay in his path;
Mercy next, with ludicrous solemnity, bearing her unsightly burden on
the end of a corn-stalk; Apollo last, his weasel's paw and mu