day, Israel?' 'Yes, missis, or else we lose
it all.' I was not sorry to avail myself of this illustration of the
nature of works of necessity, and proceeded to enlighten Israel with
regard to what I conceive to be the genuine observance of the Sabbath.

You cannot imagine anything wilder or more beautiful than the situation of
the little rustic temple in the woods where I went to worship to-day, with
the magnificent live oaks standing round it and its picturesque burial
ground. The disgracefully neglected state of the latter, its broken and
ruinous enclosure, and its shaggy weed-grown graves, tell a strange story
of the residents of this island, who are content to leave the
resting-place of their dead in so shocking a condition. In the tiny little
chamber of a church, the grand old litany of the Episcopal Church of
England was not a little shorn of its ceremonial stateliness; clerk there
was none, nor choir, nor organ, and the clergyman did duty for all, giving
out the hymn and then singing it himself, followed as best might be by the
uncertain voices of his very small congregation, the smallest I think I
ever saw gathered in a Christian place of worship, even counting a few of
the negroes who had ventured to place themselves standing at the back of
the church--an infringement on their part upon the privileges of their
betters--as Mr. B---- generally preaches a second sermon to them after the
_white_ service, to which as a rule they are not admitted.

On leaving the church, I could not but smile at the quaint and original
costumes with which Israel had so much dreaded a comparison for my
irreproachable London riding habit. However, the strangeness of it was
what inspired him with terror; but, at that rate, I am afraid a Paris gown
and bonnet might have been in equal danger of shocking his prejudices.
There was quite as little affinity with the one as the other in the
curious specimens of the 'art of dressing' that gradually distributed
themselves among the two or three indescribable machines (to use the
appropriate Scotch title) drawn up under the beautiful oak trees, on which
they departed in various directions to the several plantations on the
island.

I mounted my horse, and resumed my ride and my conversation with Israel.
He told me that Mr. K----'s great objection to the people going to church
was their meeting with the slaves from the other plantations; and one
reason, he added, that he did not wish them to do th