ight be going to be ashamed of me, an'
I picked the thing up an' took it to the rack; an' all I know is, it
smelled old, like some of the old-clothes chests up in the garret, when
we lift the lid and peep in, an' it seems as if they were dead people's
clothes."

The little negroes, Ned, Vince, and Phillis, heard this with shining
eyes, and dived their heads under Aunt Hominy's skirts and apron, while
the old woman exclaimed:

"De Lord a massy!" and began to blow what she called "pow-pow" on the
girl's profaned fingers.

"I don't believe it's anything, aunty, but an ugly, old, nasty, dead
folks' hat," exclaimed Virgie. "He just wears it to plague people. He
was drinking tea just like Miss Vessy, but I thought his teeth chattered
a little, as if he had smelt of the old hat, and it give him a chill."

"Where did he get the hat, Aunt Hominy?" Roxy asked. "Did he dig it up
somewhere?"

The question seemed to spur the cook's easy invention, and, after a
cunning yet credulous look up and down the large kitchen, where the pale
light at the windows was invisible in the stronger fire beneath the
great stack chimney, Aunt Hominy whispered:

"He dug dat hat up in ole Rehoboff ruined churchyard. He foun' it in de
grave."

"But you said this afternoon, aunty, that the Bad Man gave it to him."

"De debbil met him right dar," insisted Aunt Hominy, "in dat ole
obergrown churchyard, whar de hymns ob God used to be raised befo' de
debbil got it. He says to Meshach: 'I make you de sexton hyar. Go git de
spade out yonder, whar de dead-house used to be, an' dig among de graves
under de myrtle-vines, an' fin' my hat. As long as ye keep de Lord an'
de singin' away from dis yer big forsaken church, you may keep dat hat
to measure in eberybody's lan'.' So nobody kin sing or pray in dat
church. Nobody but Meshach Milburn ever prays dar. He goes dar sometimes
wid his Chrismas-giff on he head, an' prays to de debbil."

Thus does an unwonted fashion arouse unwonted visions, as if it brought
to the present day the phantoms which were laid at rest with itself, and
they walked into simple minds, and produced superstition there.

Aunt Hominy never was stimulated to inventions of this kind, but she
immediately absorbed them, and they became religious beliefs with her.
Her manner, highly animated by her terror and belief, produced more and
more superstition in the minds of the girls and children, and the
conversation fell off,--the little negr