IN THE UNITED STATES -1838-1875 387 



It was as I had thought. The song was an old Christmas 

 carol, evidently brought from England in Colonial times ; 

 and the negroes, having substituted here and there a word 

 or a phrase which struck them as finer than the original, 

 had preserved it. 



Strange, indeed, were the devotions of this great con 

 gregation. Occasionally some old plantation negro, gray- 

 headed and worn with labor, would rise and lead in the 

 prayers with a real inspiration, pouring out his whole 

 heart, with all its hopes and sorrows. Never have I 

 heard more pathetic supplications. More than once I 

 have seen tears streaming from the eyes of the Northern 

 visitors, and then, almost in a moment, the same faces 

 wreathed in smiles at some farce in giving out the notices 

 or in taking up the collections. 



A charming episode in this Florida stay was an ex 

 cursion up the St. John s River, through beautiful semi- 

 tropical vegetation. But one thing was exceedingly vex 

 atious. On the deck of the steamer were various tourists 

 who enjoyed themselves by shooting the beautiful birds 

 and interesting saurians of the region mere wanton 

 killing, with never any stop to pick up the bodies of 

 these creatures. It reminded me of the old wastefulness 

 in the North, the exhaustive fishing of the rivers and 

 streams, especially the trout-streams ; the killing of deer 

 by hundreds ; and the wanton extermination of the buf 

 falo. Wonderful to me were the great springs of the 

 region springs so large that the little steamer could 

 make its way to them and upon them, so that from the 

 deck we could look far, far down into the depths as 

 through clear crystal. Most interesting of the people I 

 met were Professor and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, 

 who were passing the winter in their house at Mandarin 

 near by, and invited us to visit them. Theirs was a 

 happy-go-lucky sort of life, in a simple cottage sur 

 rounded by great orange orchards, beyond which was a 

 fringe of palmettos. On the morning after our arrival, 

 Mrs. Stowe came in and said, &quot;Well, we shall have din- 



