I should like (said I
to myself) to hear you: a lecture on the emancipation of those poor
slaves cannot fail to be interesting in the slave-holding city of New
Orleans. The school was now dismissed, and the scholars left to enjoy
their full swing of lawless liberty.
The elderly gentleman descended from his elevation, and walked about
the "church," backwards and forwards, whispering a few words to one,
and then to another, in a very bustling manner. As I looked down the
aisle, I saw on one side of it, near the pulpit end, a leg projecting
about eighteen inches, in a pendent position, at an angle of about
forty-five degrees. This leg attracted my notice by its strange and
solitary appearance. It seemed as if it had got astray from its owner.
In America gentlemen's legs do get sometimes most strangely astray,--on
the chair arms, on the tables, on the chimney-pieces, and into all
sorts of out-of-the-way places. While other people generally try how
high they can carry their heads, the ambition of the Americans is to
try how high they can carry their heels! Observing the leg in question
a little more attentively, I found that behind it (in the adjoining
pew), and in close and intimate connection with it, was a man dressed
in black.
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