d to follow. Inwardly cursing the folly which
brought me into such a wilderness, I said to the darky:

"Scip, I'm sorry I took you on such a trip as this."

"Oh! neber mind me, massa; I ruther like de dark night and de storm."

"Like the night and the storm! why so?"

"'Cause den de wild spirits come out, and talk in de trees. Dey make me
feel bery strong _har_," he replied, striking his hand on his breast.

"The night and the storm, Scip, make _me_ feel like cultivating another
sort of _spirits_. There are some in the wagon-box; suppose we stop and
see what they are."

We stopped, and I took out a small willow-flask, which held the "spirits
of Otard," and offered it to the darky.

"No, massa," he said, laughing, "I neber touch dem sort ob spirits; dey
raise de bery ole deble."

Not heeding the darky's example, I took "a long and a strong pull,"
and--felt the better for it.

Again we rode on, and again and again I "communed with the spirits,"
till a sudden exclamation from Scip aroused me from the half-stupor into
which I was falling. "What's the matter?" I asked.

"A light, massa, a light!"

"Where?"

"Dar, way off in de trees--"

"Sure enough, glory, hallelujah, there it is! We're all right now,
Scip."

We rode on till we came to the inevitable opening in the trees, and were
soon at the door of what I saw, by the light which came through the
crevices in the logs, was a one-story shanty, about twenty feet square.
"Will you let us come in out of de rain?" asked Scip of a
wretched-looking, half-clad, dirt-bedraggled woman, who thrust her head
from the doorway.

"Who ar ye?" was the reply.

"Only massa and me, and de hoss, and we'm half dead wid de cold,"
replied Scip; "can we cum in out ob de rain?"

"Wal, strangers," replied the woman, eyeing us as closely as the
darkness would permit, "you'll find mighty poor fixins har, but I reckon
ye can come in."

[Footnote C: The Southern blacks, like all ignorant people, are intensely
fanatical on religious subjects. The most trifling occurrences have to
their minds a hidden significance, and they believe the LORD speaks to
them in signs and dreams, and in almost every event of nature. This
superstition, which has been handed down from their savage ancestry, has
absolute sway over them, and one readily sees what immense power it
would give to some leading, adroit mind, that knew how to use it. By
means of it they might be led to the most desperate deeds, f