was a large crowd there, and about one hundred horses tied round the
fence--for some of them were far from home, and, like myself, they were
all runaways, and their horses, like mine, had to be home and cleaned
before their masters were up in the morning. In getting my horse close up
to the fence a nail caught my trousers at the thigh, and split them clean
up to the seat; of course my shirt tail fell out behind, like a woman's
apron before. This dreadful misfortune almost unmanned me, and curtailed
both my pride and pleasure for the night. I cried until I could cry no
more. However, I was determined I would not be done out of my sport after
being at the expense of coming, so I went round and borrowed some pins,
and pinned up my shirt tail as well as I could. I then went into the
dance, and told the fiddler to play me a jig. Che, che, che, went the
fiddle, when the banjo responded with a thrum, thrum, thrum, with the loud
cracking of the bone player. I seized a little Sambo gal, and round and
round the room we went, my money and my buttons going jingle, jingle,
jingle, seemed to take a lively part with the music, and to my great
satisfaction every eye seemed to be upon me, and I could not help thinking
about what an impression I should leave behind upon those pretty yellow
and Sambo gals, who were gazing at me, thinking I was the richest and
handsomest nigger they had ever seen: but unfortunately the pins in my
breeches gave way, and to my great confusion my shirt tail fell out; and
what made my situation still more disgraceful was the mischievous conduct
of my partner, the gal that I was dancing with, who instead of trying to
conceal my shame caught my shirt tail behind and held it up. The roar of
laughter that came from both men and gals almost deafened me, and I would
at this moment have sunk through the floor, so I endeavoured to creep out
as slily as I could; but even this I was not permitted to do until I had
undergone a hauling around the room by my unfortunate shirt tail: and this
part of the programme was performed by the gals, set on by the boys--every
nigger who could not stand up and laugh, because laughing made them weak,