combined with the frankness, spirit, and grace of his deportment, made him a favourite wherever he went. The conscious ness of being able to please gave him a confidence that never overreached on the bounds of modesty, and a gayety chastened by perfect good breeding. But there was something so teasing, so baffling about this original brunette, so different from any one whom he had ever met before, that it haunted him, and even in his dreams the dark girl of the fountain pursued him, with her menacing little whip, and dashed the spray over his uncovered head. CHAPTER V. Dusky and radiant as the night, Of that gay festal band.-BALLAD. CHRISTMAS was at hand-the great saturnalia of the Southwhen for seven days the slave revels in all the joys of freedom, and, as in the ancient festivals celebrated in honour of the father of the gods, the master and mistress act a subordinate part. Whatever services are required during these gala days are liberally rewarded, though they may be spontaneously offered. An unprejudiced stranger, who wished to see some of the lights that illumine the darkness of slavery, would rejoice in the opportunity of visiting Bellamy Place while the holidays were infusing their gladdening influence through the whole plantation. For two or three days previous, Mrs. Bellamy, assisted by the delighted Katy, was assorting the presents she had prepared for all the household slaves. Those who were called the field roes were remembered by the bounty of the master, who never assigned them a niggard boon. The gifts of Mrs. Bellamy generally consisted of a handsome calico dress, a radiant handkerchief, and those little showy, fancy articles that set off to advantage their shining and jetty skins. The little negroes were allowed to hang up their stockings, sure that St. Nicholas would fill them with sweet cakes and candy. It was the morning of the first day of Christmas week, and with the earliest faint auroral streak merry voices were tumbling on the top of each other, and making the house ring with “Christmas gift, master!" "Christmas gift, mistress!" When a master and mistress so kind and liberal as Mr. and Mrs. Bellamy are thus aroused from their slumbers, the gift-seekers are never sent empty away, but the ready packets are tossed to the right owners, or a promise given that is faithfully kept. But it is not the master and mistress alone who are thus honoured. Every member of the house, whoever it may be, is saluted by the same greeting, and when the white population are satisfied with the honours they have received, the negroes run headlong against each other, repeating from the altitude of their lungs the annual, unwearied cry of "Christmas gift!" Then follows the exulting shout, "I've caught you!" with the climax of a laugh such as only a negro can send out through the ivory portals of sound. The holidays were ushered in with unusual excitement, as the nuptials of King and Cora were to be celebrated with all the brilliancy befitting such distinguished personages. The marriage of the favourite household slave of a wealthy planter is a circumstance of nearly as much interest as that of a son or daughter. Here were two favourites, and of course preparations of unwonted magnificence were made. Mr. Bellamy, at the time his own mansion was built, had erected a large hall expressly for a dancing-room for his negroes, and every night of the an nual festival the animating strains of the violin winged the feet which neither toil had stiffened nor slavery weighed down. The wedding of Cora was to be succeeded by a ball, to which the negroes of the neighbouring plantations were invited, and for which invitations, written by Katy in her fairest hand, had already been circulated. The only drawback to the hilarity of the occasion was the Carthaginian General. Though he was apparently subdued by the mild influence of his mistress, and was really so for the time, his passions were only slumbering. Like the chained. mastiff that guarded his master's yard, they had lost none of their strength, but were ready to break loose and deal destruction around them. Following the counsels of Mrs. Bellamy, Cora put aside her little, coquettish, triumphant airs, and treated him with real kindness, but it seemed to have no effect on his dark and sullen mood. Mrs. Bellamy did not express the apprehensions that filled her mind, but she had a sad misgiving that something would happen to sadden the prospects of the beautiful mulatto. Still her hands loved to adorn her with the bridal robes, which enhanced, as they usually do, the natural beauty of the wearer. Cora's dress and the ornaments that decorated it were the Christmas gifts of her mistress, and many a fair bride of the race of snow would be proud to clothe herself in raiment as tasteful and becoming. The transparent Swiss muslin frock, the glistening white satin sash, the white blossoms that wreathed her jetty and braided hair, were all that a fashionable belle could desire. Her coral necklace and bracelets contrasted richly with the bright golden hue of her neck and arms; and deep and brilliant as the coral glowing under the darkening wave was the colour that dyed her round and dimpled cheeks. As she stood before her mistress in the beauty of her bridal attire, smiling under her pleased and admiring gaze, a sudden sadness clouded her brow, and tears gathered unbidden inte her soft, black eyes. "I don't know what is the reason, mistress," said she, "but I feel so bad to-night; I do think something is going to happen to me or King; Ive seen so many bad signs lately." "Oh, Cora, you must not believe in signs," said Katy. "I can't help it, Miss Katy. I dreamed I was married last night, and that is a sure sign of a funeral; and the owls have been hooting on an old tree back of the kitchen for more than a week." "But you know there is a charm in a wedding-ring, Cora, that nothing can resist, so you must hasten to put one on,' said Mrs. Bellamy, in a reassuring tone. The ceremony was performed in a back sitting-room, which was decorated with holly and pine boughs, so that it looked like an evergreen bower. King, who was worthy of his royal name, would not have exchanged situations with Prince Albert, or any other potentate of Europe; and the black retinue that surrounded this son and daughter of Africa, whose paler complexions showed they approached a fairer race, gazed upon them with as much admiration and deference as England's royal pair ever inspired. But when the doors of the supperroom were thrown open, a frame building contiguous to the ball-room, the coup d'œil was dazzling as a sunburst. The table was brilliantly lighted and adorned with all the flowers a mild southern winter so liberally supplies. Cakes beautifully ornamented and frosted as white as ivory, oranges, confectionaries, and all the luxuries that are customary on such occasions, covered the board. These dainties were partly supplied by Mrs. Bellamy and partly by the negroes themselves, who took a pride and delight in appropriating some of their own earnings to adorn the marriage-feast. Cora, who sought in vain among the wedding guests for the powerful form and raven face of Hannibal, suffered her spirits to rebound from the weight that had oppressed them, and gayly laughed and brightly blushed, and gave herself fully to the enjoyment of woman's triumph hour. The transition from the supper to the ball-room was followed by greater hilarity and more unrestrained freedom. Wilder and wilder grew the mirth and excitement, till each fibre of every plank in the floor seemed to quiver beneath the bounding, flying, crossing, pigeonwinged feet that kept time to the quick, bewitching strains of the viol and the tambourine. It was inspiring to look on the master of the last instrument; the way he rattled on the parchment was quite supernatural. Shutting his eyes and opening his mouth, and throwing back his head, his knuckles rang like brazen balls on the resounding instrument. Sometimes he would rap it thunderingly with his head, then whirling it with inconceivable rapidity to his feet, tap it with his heels and toes, then it would be dancing on his elbows, like a thing of life and instinct. Not satisfied with this surpassing display of agility, he would throw the tambourine on the floor, and whirling it round with the end of his forefinger, its little bells would jingle like a New England sleigh. All this time he seemed in a magnetic sleep, for it is questionable whether he ever unclosed his eyes. King and Cora opened the ball with a grace that captivated every eye. Cora lightly touched the folds of her full, falling skirt with the tip of her white gloves, and put her pretty head on one side, as she had seen the white belles do in her mistress's drawing-room, and King kept up a bowing and swaying motion that waved the skirts of his coat to and fro, as well as the end of the white handkerchief that hung elaborately from his pocket. During a pause in the reels, Dancing Jack, as he was called far and near, took the centre of the floor and performed the Virginia break-down, in a style that defies description. Each separate joint and sinew danced, as if it were an individual self. If ever there was an example of rapidly accelerating, apparently perpetual, unwearied motion, it was exhibited by Dancing Jack. He became wild, frantic, superhuman, and finished at last by an exulting leap, then giving his right heel a tremendous rap, stood as if transformed to a black petrifaction. While Jack was enchanting his companions by his unexampled achievement, Cora stole out to arrange her hair, which had become disordered in the dance. As she passed out she saw a tall, dark figure lurking near the door, which she immediately recognised as Hannibal. Though she had a dread, amounting to horror, of her Herculean lover, she pitied his un |