things from the kitchen. As is often the case in Southern
plantation houses the kitchen was under a separate roof from the main
house, and connected with it by a long open gallery. We waited some time
but no supper arrived. The Colonel, becoming impatient, was on the point
of going to look for it, when the door burst open and Solomon appeared
empty-handed, every hair on his woolly head pointing a different
direction.

"De ha'nt, Marse Cunnel, de ha'nt! He's sperrited off de chicken. Right
outen de oven from under Nancy's eyes."

"Solomon," said the Colonel severely, "what are you trying to say? Talk
sense."

"Sho's yuh bohn, Marse Cunnel; it's de libbin' truf I's tellin' yuh. Dat
ha'nt has fotched dat chicken right outen de oven, an' it's vanished in
de air."

"You go out and bring that chicken in and don't let me hear another
word."

"I cayn't, Marse Cunnel, 'deed I cayn't. Dere ain't no chicken dere."

"Very well, then! Go and get us some ham and eggs and stop this fuss."

Solomon withdrew and we three looked at each other.

"Rad, what's the meaning of this?" the Colonel demanded querulously.

"Some foolishness on the part of the niggers. I'll look into it after
supper. When the ha'nt begins abstracting chickens from the oven I think
it's time to investigate."

Being naturally curious over the matter, I commenced asking questions
about the history and prior appearances of the ha'nt. Radnor answered
readily enough, but I noticed that the Colonel appeared restless under
the inquiry, and the amused suspicion crossed my mind that he did not
entirely discredit the story. When a man has been born and brought up
among negroes he comes, in spite of himself, to be tinged with their
ideas.

Supper finished, the three of us turned down the gallery toward the
kitchen. As we approached the door we heard a murmur of voices, one
rising every now and then in a shrill wail which furnished a sort of
chorus. Radnor whispered in my ear that he reckoned Nancy had "got um"
again. Though I did not comprehend at the moment, I subsequently learned
that "um" referred to a sort of emotional ecstasy into which Nancy
occasionally worked herself, the motive power being indifferently ghosts
or religion.

The kitchen was a large square room, with brick floor, rough shack walls
and smoky rafters overhead from which pended strings of garlic, red
peppers and herbs. The light was supplied ostensibly by two tallow dips,
but in reality by