WINTER SUNSHINE. 19 



white man, and oscillates more to and fro, or from 

 side to side. The imaginary line which his head de- 

 scribes is full of deep and long undulations. Even 

 the boys and young men sway as if bearing a burden. 



Along the fences and by the woods I come upon 

 their snares, dead-falls, and rude box-traps. The 

 freedman is a sucessful trapper and hunter and has 

 by nature an insight into these things. I frequently 

 see him in market or on his way thither with a tame 

 'possum clinging timidly to his shoulders, or a young 

 coon or fox led by a chain. Indeed the colored man 

 behaves precisely like the rude unsophisticated peas- 

 ant that he is, and there is fully as much virtue in 

 him, using the word in its true sense, as in the white 

 peasant ; indeed, much more than in the poor whites 

 who grew up by his side, while there is often a be- 

 nignity and a depth of human experience and sym- 

 pathy about some of these dark faces that comes home 

 to one like the best one sees in art or reads in- books. 



One touch of Nature makes all the world akin, and 

 there is certainly a touch of Nature about the colored 

 man : indeed, I had almost said, of Anglo-Saxon nat- 

 ure. They have the quaintness and homeliness of 

 the simple English stock. I seem to see my grand- 

 father and grandmother in the ways and doings of 

 these old " uncles " and " aunties ; " indeed the lesson 

 comes nearer home than even that, for I seem to see 

 myself in them, and what is more, I see that they 

 see themselves in me, and that neither party has 

 much to boast of. 



