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 

 v hese 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 haa 

 nuch to boast of. 



