all been gathered in, their hard work is done, and though in a few weeks the old routine will begin again, they are now oblivious of it all.  Hour after hour they continue to dance, a new array of fresh performers taking the place of those who are exhausted, and then the regular beating of their feet on the floor can be heard at a considerable distance, with a dull, monotonous sound, varied only by the hum of voices or noise of laughter or the shrill notes of the musical instruments.  These are the banjo and accordion, the former being the favorite, perhaps because it is more intimately associated with the social traditions of the negroes.  Their best performers play very skilfully on both, and indulge in as much ecstatic by-play as musicians of the most famous schools.  They throw themselves into many strange contortions as they touch the strings or keys, swaying from side to side, or rocking their bodies backward and forward till the head almost reaches the floor, or leaning over the instrument and addressing it in caressing terms.  They accompany their playing with their voices, but their repertoire is limited to a few songs, which generally consist in mere repetition of a few notes.  All their airs have been handed down from remote generations.  Their words deal with the ordinary incidents of the negro’s life, and embody his narrow hopes and aspirations, but they are rarely connected narratives.  As a rule, they are broken lines without relevancy or coherence, while the choruses are so many meaningless syllables.  The negroes seem to derive no pleasure from music outside of those songs and airs which they have so often heard at their own hearthstones, and which have come down to them from their ancestors.

The Christmas holidays, extending from the 25th of December to the 2d of January, are a period of entire suspension of labor on the plantation.  In anticipation of their arrival, a large quantity of fire-wood is hauled from the forests and piled up around the cabins; but the negroes spend very little of this interval of leisure in their own homes, unless a bad spell of weather has set in and continues.  They are either out in the open air or at the “store.”  This latter serves the purpose of a club, and is a very popular resort.  Even at other times of the year it is always packed at night; but during the Christmas holidays it is full to overflowing in the day-time.  At this gay season the fires are kept burning very fiercely; the Sunday suits and dresses are worn every day; the tables are covered with more abundant fare of the plainer as well as rarer sort.  All visitors are received with increased hospitality, and work of every kind that usually goes on in the precincts of the dwelling is, if possible, deferred until the opening of the new year.  Many strange faces are now seen on the plantation, and many faces that were once familiar, but whose owners have removed elsewhere.  The negro is as closely bound in affection to the scenes of his childhood as the white man, and