. Zigzag journeys in the White city. With visits to the neighboring metropolis . possess the power of enabling their holdersto detect the presence of buried treasure. Thus each devotee had his little rod,carefully cut and trimmed in some deep old swamp, where he had sought it outwith a seriousness and intentness of purpose that one smiles to think upon. How they must have looked capering about the ring, each with his stick ofwitch-hazel! — not boys, but men, — grave, practical old fellows, some of whomhad, perhaps, that very afternoon been hoeing corn in their own broad fields,and others takin
. Zigzag journeys in the White city. With visits to the neighboring metropolis . possess the power of enabling their holdersto detect the presence of buried treasure. Thus each devotee had his little rod,carefully cut and trimmed in some deep old swamp, where he had sought it outwith a seriousness and intentness of purpose that one smiles to think upon. How they must have looked capering about the ring, each with his stick ofwitch-hazel! — not boys, but men, — grave, practical old fellows, some of whomhad, perhaps, that very afternoon been hoeing corn in their own broad fields,and others taking account of cargoes of molasses and sugar at the villagewharves. That there might be no disposition to waver in the ranks, it was Darbyscustom to cheer his retainers with encouraging words; and his smooth and con-fident tones were as reassuring to them as the honk of the leading ganderto a flock of wild geese. Only be true to me, he would say, and I will get the money, — a remarkof which they saw the significance a great deal better afterwards than they didat the THE FOLK-LORE SOCLETYS QUEER STORLES. 83 Their case illustrated the homely aphorism that they who dance must paythe fiddler. They were subjected among other things to a constant expenditure for acertain wonderful kind of sand, costing sixteen dollars an ounce, which wasindispensable to the success of Darbys magic, and which he alone could pro-cure. It was this which was to unlock the secret of the old-time buccaneer. Again and again the supply was exhausted, only to be again and againrenewed; until it must have seemed, even to those patient trotters about thering, that the spirit who guarded the pirates gold could be nothing short ofsand-proof! In the centre of the circle there was a hole several feet deep, into which theschoolmaster magician and his followers would successively pour small quan-tities of the precious material, during the intervals of their antics. A sight more unique than that of these de
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectworldsc, bookyear1894
