r, and shouting
with laughter at intervals, were engaged in practising a part to be
presented in a rural comedy--or that they were a parcel of simpletons.

One peculiarity of Mr. Sanders's humour was that it could not be
imitated with any degree of success. His raciest anecdote lost a large
part of its flavour when repeated by some one else. It was the way he
told it, a cut of the eye, a lift of the eyebrow, a movement of the
hand, a sudden air of solemnity--these were the accessories that gave
point and charm to the humour.

Mr. Sanders had cut out a very large piece of work for himself. He kept
it up for some time, but he gradually allowed himself longer and longer
intervals of seriousness. The multitude of problems growing out of the
new and strange conditions were of a thought-compelling nature; and they
grew larger and more ominous as the days went by. Gabriel Tolliver might
take to the woods, as the saying is, and so escape from the prevailing
depression. But Mr. Sanders and the rest of the men had no such
resource; responsibility sat on their shoulders, and they were compelled
to face the conditions and study them. Gabriel could sit on the fence by
the roadside, and see neither portent nor peril in the groups and gangs
of negroes passing and repassing, and moving restlessly to and fro, some
with bundles and some with none. He watched them, as he afterward
complained, with a curiosity as idle as that which moves a little child
to watch a swarm of ants. He noticed, however, that the negroes were no
longer cheerful. Their child-like gaiety had vanished. In place of their
loud laughter, their boisterous play, and their songs welling forth and
filling the twilight places with sweet melodies, there was silence.
Gabriel had no reason to regard this silence as ominous, but it was so
regarded by his elders.

He thought that the restless and uneasy movements of the negroes were
perfectly natural. They had suddenly come to the knowledge that they
were free, and they were testing the nature and limits of their freedom.
They desired to find out its length and its breadth. So much was clear
to Gabriel, but it was not clear to his elders. And what a pity that it
was not! How many mistakes would have been avoided! What a dreadful
tangle and turmoil would have been prevented if these grown children
could have been judged from Gabriel's point of view! For the boy's
interpretation of the restlessness and uneasiness of the blacks