nd she looked, for all the world,
like a black ghost in a winding sheet, escaped from below, and bound on
a 'good time generally.' Two 'shining lights,' on either side of the
pulpit, held aloft blazing torches of pine, which illuminated the sea of
grinning darkness, and sent up a smoke like that arising from the pit
which is said to be bottomless. About a hundred darkies were present;
and the number of glossy coats, fancy turbans, gaudy bonnets, red
shawls, and flaming dresses, which the light disclosed, was amazing. The
poor worm that grubbed in the earth, had appeared ('for that occasion
only') as a butterfly; and Lazarus, rid of his rags, had come forth
dressed like a Broadway dandy.

Any person of sensitive olfactories would have halted in the doorway;
but I elbowed through the woolly gathering, and followed Frank and Selma
to the family pew. Tittering, laughing, and flaunting their red and
yellow kerchiefs, the black people were enjoying themselves amazingly,
when 'Dar dey comes,' 'Dar'm de happy pussons,' went round the
assemblage, and the bride and groom, attended by two sable couples,
entered the building. After some ludicrous mistakes, they got 'into
position' in front of the railing, and Black Joe took a stand before
them.

Rosey was dressed in white, with a neat fillet of pink and blue ribbon
about her head; and Ally wore a black frock coat, with white vest, and
white cotton gloves. One of the groomsmen--a rustic beau from a
neighboring plantation--wore an immensely long-tailed blue coat with
brass buttons, a flaming red waistcoat, yellow woollen mittens, and a
neckerchief that looked like a secession flag hugging a lamp-post. Both
of these gentry had hats of stove-pipe pattern, very tall, and with
narrow brims; and--they wore them during the ceremony.

'Silence in de meetin',' cried Joe.

The boisterous sea of black wool subsided to a dead calm. Those not
already standing rose, and Joe commenced reading the marriage service of
the Episcopal Church.

The parties immediately interested appeared to have conned their lessons
well; for they made all the responses with great propriety; but some of
the congregation seemed less familiar with the service. When Joe
repeated the words, 'If any man kin show cause why dese folks should not
be lawfully jined togedder, leff him now speak, or else foreber hole
his peace,' Dinah turned to the audience, and cried out:

'Yas, jess leff him come out wid it _now_. I'd lik