was delivered,

"Min' yer manners, now!"

At which the little nigs would make a comical little "bob-down"
courtesy and say, "Thankee, marm."

When the presents were all delivered, Major Waldron told the negroes
that their mistress and himself were going to the quarters to take
presents to the old negroes and the sick, who could not walk to the
house, and after that he would have service in the chapel, and that he
hoped as many as could would attend.

Then the crowd dispersed, and the children's mamma filled a basket
with "good things," and presents for old Aunt Sally, who was almost
blind; and poor Jane, who had been sick a long time; and Daddy Jake,
the oldest negro on the place, who never ventured out in bad weather
for fear of the "rheumatiz;" and then, accompanied by her husband and
children, she carried it to the quarters to wish the old negroes a
happy Christmas.

The quarters presented a scene of the greatest excitement. Men and
women were bustling about, in and out of the cabins, and the young
folks were busily engaged cleaning up the big barn and dressing it
with boughs of holly and cedar; for you see Aunt Sukey's Jim was going
to be married that very night, and the event had been talked of for
weeks, for he was a great favorite on the place.

He was a tall, handsome black fellow, with white teeth and bright
eyes, and he could play the fiddle and pick the banjo, and knock the