myself--only poor Scipio loses his quarter-dollar."

I soon had my steed bitted and bridled; and, leading the animal outside,
I sprang into the saddle, and rode off.

The path I was taking led past the "negro quarters," and then through
some fields to the dark cypress and tupelo woods in the rear. From
these led a cross-way that would bring me out again upon the Levee road.
I had travelled this path many a time, and knew it well enough.

The "nigger quarter" was distant some two hundred yards from the "grande
maison," or "big house," of the plantation. It consisted of some fifty
or sixty little "cabins," neatly built, and standing in a double row,
with a broad way between. Each cabin was a facsimile of its neighbour,
and in front of each grew a magnolia or a beautiful China-tree, under
the shade of whose green leaves and sweet-scented flowers little negroes
might be seen all the livelong day, disporting their bodies in the dust.
These, of all sizes, from the "piccaninny" to the "good-sized chunk of
a boy," and of every shade of slave-colour, from the fair-skinned
quadroon to the black Bambarra, on whom, by an American witticism of
doubtful truthfulness; "charcoal would make a white mark!" Divesting
them of dust, you would have no difficulty in determining their
complexion. Their little plump bodies were nude, from the top of their
woolly heads to their long projecting heels. There roll they, black and
yellow urchins, all the day, playing with pieces of sugar-cane, or
melon-rind, or corn-cobs--cheerful and happy as any little lords could
be in their well-carpeted nurseries in the midst of the costliest toys
of the German bazaar!

On entering the negro quarter, you cannot fail to observe tall papaw
poles or cane-reeds stuck up in front of many of the cabins, and
carrying upon their tops large, yellow gourd-shells, each perforated
with a hole in the side. These are the dwellings of the purple martin,
(_Hirundo purpurea_)--the most beautiful of American swallows, and a
great favourite among the simple negroes, as it had been, long before
their time, among the red aborigines of the soil. You will notice, too,
hanging in festoons along the walls of the cabins, strings of red and
green pepper-pods (species of capsicum); and here and there a bunch of
some dried herb of medicinal virtue, belonging to the negro
_pharmacopoeia_. All these are the property of "aunt Phoebe," or "aunty
Cleopatra," or "ole aunt Phillis;"