THE DARKIE FIDDLER. 453 
with lolling tongues and pricked ears, listening to their com- 
pulsory charmer, for several weary hours, until the negroes 
at the wedding, becoming impatient or alarmed about the old 
man, came out.to look for him, and found him thus perched 
upon the roof of the tottering hut, sawing away for dear life, 
while-he was ready to drop every instant from sheer fatigue 
and the freezing cold. _They rescued the old man from his 
comfortless position, while the lingering forms of his late 
audience .told that they most: unwillingly surrendered tha 
:. fruition of their unwonted feast. 
