"
"I tell you, Katy, I neber t'ink to put um on a finger."
"Go, then, Caesar, and do not forget the left pocket; be careful to take
off your hat as you pass the graveyard, and be expeditious; for
nothing, I am certain, can be more trying to the patience, than thus to
be waiting for the ceremony, when a body has fully made up her mind
to marry."
With this injunction Caesar quitted the house, and he was soon firmly
fixed in the saddle. From his youth, the black, like all of his race,
had been a hard rider; but, bending under the weight of sixty winters,
his African blood had lost some of its native heat. The night was dark,
and the wind whistled through the vale with the dreariness of November.
When Caesar reached the graveyard, he uncovered his grizzled head with
superstitious awe, and threw around him many a fearful glance, in
momentary expectation of seeing something superhuman. There was
sufficient light to discern a being of earthly mold stealing from among
the graves, apparently with a design to enter the highway. It is in vain
that philosophy and reason contend with early impressions, and poor
Caesar was even without the support of either of these frail allies. He
was, however, well mounted on a coach horse of Mr. Wharton's and,
clinging to the back of the animal with instinctive skill, he abandoned
the rein to the beast.
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