placed for him in the usual manner. After waiting for some time a bright
light shot through the cracks in the cabin for an instant, and was
repeated at intervals of two or three minutes, three or four times. This
was the night-signal of "all right" agreed upon between uncle Ben and
his wife, and was made by placing the usual grease light under a vessel
and raising the vessel for a moment at intervals. Ben approached the
cabin and gave _his_ signal by rapping on the door three times, and
after a short pause three more raps. Thus they had to arrange to meet;
the husband to obtain food to sustain life, and the wife to administer
to him. On this particular night their meeting was unusually impressive.
She had heard the death-hounds, the sound of the gun-shot, and she knew
the yelps of the hounds and the shot were intended for Ben, her
husband. With no crime laid to him, he was hunted down as a wild beast.
Made in God's own image, he is made a slave, a brute, an outcast, and an
outlaw because his skin is black. Thus they met, Ben and his wife. After
the usual precautions and mutual congratulations they both kneeled
before the throne of God and thanked him for their preservation thus
far, and throwing themselves upon his goodness and bounty, asked help in
their need and safety in the future. Without rising from his knees, Ben,
even in the anguish of his heart, consoled his wife, remarking, "that
the darkest hour is always just before daylight."

The blacks of the South have their own peculiar moral maxims, applicable
to all situations in life, and the slaves not knowing how to read
committed such Bible truths as were read to them from time to time. It
is true they were generally superstitious in a great degree, as all
ignorant persons are; yet their native sense of right led them to adopt
the best and most religious principles, dressed in homely "sayings,"
their circumstances permitted.