presiding elder was to visit their church. The 
date set for this important function chanced 
to be the very night when Jim Crow went to 
roost near the church. 
When about dark the colored people began 
to arrive, the crows all flew away except Jim, 
who saw nothing at all alarming in the appear- 
ance of these good-natured field-hands. I have 
no doubt the presiding elder preached a powerful 
sermon, and probably pleased his hearers by 
saying Jim Haskel had been a good and useful 
young man. The sermon was followed by a 
holy dance, at the conclusion of which Jim’s 
mother in great excitement arose and said that 
she wanted a message from her boy. 
‘*How is you, Jim?” she shouted. ‘‘How you 
come on?’ In the stillness that followed, a 
parched and strangled voice answered out of 
the darkness: 
Sits hob! -itts het!” 
With a shriek Jim’s mother sank into a seat 
and threw her apron over her head. No one in 
the congregation doubted that this was a voice 
from the spirit land. All believed it except old 
146 
