en all looked very fine.
Mamma arranged the bridal party in the back parlor, and the
folding-doors were thrown open. Both rooms and the large hall were full
of negroes. The ceremony was performed by old Uncle Daniel, the negro
preacher on the place, and the children's father gave the bride away.

After the marriage, the darkies adjourned to the barn to dance. Diddie
and Dumps begged to be allowed to go and look at them "just a little
while," but it was their bedtime, and Mammy marched them off to the
nursery.

About twelve o'clock supper was announced, and old and young repaired to
the laundry. The room was festooned with wreaths of holly and cedar, and
very bright and pretty and tempting the table looked, spread out with
meats and breads, and pickles and preserves, and home-made wine, and
cakes of all sorts and sizes, iced and plain; large bowls of custard and
jelly; and candies, and fruits and nuts.

In the centre of the table was a pyramid, beginning with a large cake at
the bottom and ending with a "snowball" on top.

At the head of the table was the bride-cake, containing the "ring" and
the "dime;" it was handsomely iced, and had a candy Cupid perched over
it, on a holly bough which was stuck in a hole in the middle of the
cake. It was to be cut after a while by each of the bridesmaids and
groomsmen in turns; and whoever should cut the slice containing the ring
would be the next one to get married; but whoever should get the dime
was to be an old maid or an old bachelor.

The supper was enjoyed hugely, particularly a big bowl of eggnog, which
so enlivened them all that the dancing was entered into with renewed
vigor, and kept up till the gray tints in the east warned them that
another day had dawned, and that Christmas was over.

But you may be sure that in all Christendom it had been welcomed in and
ushered out by no merrier, lighter hearts than those of the happy,
contented folks on the old plantation.

CHAPTER III.

MAMMY'S STORY.

One cold, rainy night a little group were assembled around a crackling
wood fire in the nursery; Mammy was seated in a low chair, with Tot in
her arms; Dumps was rocking her doll back and forth, and Diddie was
sitting at the table reading; Aunt Milly was knitting, and the three
little darkies were nodding by the fire.

"Mammy," said Dumps, "s'posin' you tell us a tale." Tot warmly seconded
the motion, and Mammy, who was never more delighted than when
astonishing t