24 UNCLE TOM’S CABIN; OR
’ >

addition to the glories of the place. A few of the worshippers
belonged to families hard by, who had got permission to attend,
and who brought in various choice scraps of information, about the
sayings and doings at the house and on the place, which circulated
as freely as the same sort of small change does in higher circles.

After awhile the singing commenced, to the evident delight of
"all present. Not even all the disadvantage of nasal intonation
could prevent the effect of the naturally fine voices, in airs at once
wild and spirited. The words were sometimes the well-known
and common hymns sung in the churches about, and sometimes of
a wilder, more indefinite character, picked up at camp-meetings.

The chorus of one of them, which ran as follows, was sung with
great energy and unction :—

* Die on the field of battle,

Die on the field of battle,
Glory in my soul.”

Another special favourite had oft repeated the words—

“Oh, I’m going to glory—won’t you come along with me?
Don’t you see the angels beck’ning, and a calling me away P
Don’t you see the golden city and the everlasting day ?”

There were others, which made incessant mention of “ Jordan’s
banks,” and ‘“‘ Canaan's fields,” and the ‘ New Jerusalem ;” for
the negro mind, impassioned and imaginative, always attaches
itself to hymns and expressions of a vivid and pictorial nature ;
and, as they sang, some laughed, and some cried, and some clapped
hands, or shook hands rejoicingly with each other, as if they had
fairly gained the other side of the river.

Various exhortations, or relations of experience, followed, and
intermingled with the singing. One old grey-headed woman, long
past work, but much revered as a sort of chronicle of the past,
rose, aud leaning on her staff, said :

“Well, chil’en! Well, I'm mighty glad to hear ye all and
see ye all once more, ‘cause I don’t know when I'll be gone
to glory; but I’ve done got ready, chil’en ; ‘pears like I'd got my
little bundle all tied up, and my bonnet on, jest a waitin’ for the
stage to come along and take mehome. Sometimes, in the night,
I think I hear the wheels a rattlin’, and I’m lookin’ out all the
time. Now, you jest be ready too; for I tell ye all, chil’en,” she
said, striking her staff hard on the floor, “dat ar glory is a mighty
thing! It’s a mighty thing, chil’en—you don’no nothing about
it—it’s wonderful.” And the old creature sat down, with stream-
ing tears, as wholly overcome, while the whole circle struck up—

*‘ Oh, Canaan, bright Canaan,
I’m bound for the land of Canaan.”

Mas'r George, by request, read the last chapters of the Revela-
tion, often interrupted by such exclamations as ‘‘ The sakes now!”