The Real Hard Sell

his child on the lonely island, with only black hands to receive and tend it, and how the waiting mother, guarded by the faithful two, and loved by the three hundred loyal slaves

te with the island; of the season of the snake-plague in the heart of the brake, when rattlers and copperheads, spreading-adders, moccasins, and conger-eels came up to the island, squirming, darting, or lazily sunning themselves in its flowe

ered to Satan supplanted the shouting of the name of Christ in the churches. A red streak in the sky over the brake w

g with bits of hair and bones. A rabbit's foot was more potent than medicine; a snake's too

der threatening famine, and then by the invasion of serpents,

ibrating with hope, commingled with dread, when the reported death o

is an o

er's return-for the two never believed him dead; how, when they had nearly reached the rear lands of the paternal place, they were met by an irresistible flood which turned them back; and how, barely escaping with their lives,

e inside history n

o account of passengers whom it carried safely to the city. Of the poor forlorn lot, a few found their way back t

old people with her grandchild, and of their supposed fate. No one doubted that all three had perished in the river, and the news came as tardy