The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

NEGRO VISIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS.

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loose down t' our place las' night, an' 's struttin' 'bout dar
like he was de cock ob de walk, an' huntin' fo' somet'ing t'
d'vour. An' Oncl' Henson's got his snake-skin roun' his
neck, an' his horseshoe in his pocket, an' he goesright 'roun'
anywhar, 'cause de debble doan dar' t' tech 'im, when he's
got dem t'ings! T'ings is mighty bad t' de ole place, Miss
Lorry an' Miss Mary! I d'clar t' gracious, I'm dat scart
'bout dat fire, dat I'm shakin' like Missis' jell, what she
makes! An' Aunt Aggy says dat de moon was all blood,
when she seed it ober her lef shoul'er; an' dat a white horse
gallop'd in de night t' Liberty Hill wi' Death a ridin' 'im, 'an
car'rin' somebody in his arms; an' she spec's somet'ing orful's
gwine t' happen, - a buryin', or de end ob de worl'! " And
he embellished his peroration with such grotesque gesticulations, and bodily contortions and gyrations, as evoked shouts
of laughter Laura alone remained grave. I observed that
she started perceptibly at Peter's romance of the white horse
galloping to Liberty Hill, the dreary family burial place.
"Pete, if you keep on, you'll make as good a preacher as
Uncle Henson, by-and-by," said Mary.
" Yes, Miss Mary, dat's wat I'se strivin' fo'! "
" How did the mill get a-fire?" inquired Dick.
"Oh, 't was de debble, Mas'r Dick; he did it hissel', an'
he brung his fire heah wid 'im. Pomp, Patsy's ole man,
cotched 'im at it."
"Why didn't Pomp stop him? What did he allow the
devil to burn up the mill for?"
"Oh-- Ki! Mas'r Dick! Wat's Pomp gwine t' do wi'
dat ar debble gwine roun' switchin' fire eberywhar outen his
long tail? Ole Pomp's got sense 'nuff t' jess let dat debble
'lone, an' t' take t' de woods hissel'."
" Ole Pomp didn't see no devil switchin' fire!" said Dick
contemptuously. "What are you lyin' so for?"