When he was sitting, or standing still, he
swayed back and forth incessantly, like a rock-
ing toy. At the piano, he swayed in time to
the music, and when he was not playing, his
body kept up this motion, like an empty mill
grinding on. He found the pedals and tried
them, ran his yellow hands up and down the
keys a few times, tinkling off scales, then
turned to the company.

"She seems all right, gentlemen. Nothing
happened to her since the last time I was here.
Mrs. Gardener, she always has this piano
tuned up before I come. Now, gentlemen, I
expect you've all got grand voices. Seems like
we might have some good old plantation songs
tonight."

The men gathered round him, as he began
to play "My Old Kentucky Home." They
sang one negro melody after another, while the
mulatto sat rocking himself, his head thrown
back, his yellow face lifted, its shriveled eye-
lids never fluttering.

He was born in the Far South, on the d'Ar-
nault plantation, where the spirit if not the
fact of slavery persisted. When he was three
weeks old he had an illness which left him
totally blind. As soon as he was old enough

[[210]]

p209 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p210w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p211

v?