This was a great occasion, and nothing concerning it was to be considered lightly.
"'Tain't right," she said to Uncle Isham when he arrived, "fur a pow'ful ole pusson like me to set out on a jarney ob dis kin' 'thout 'ligious sarvices.

'Tain't 'spectable." Uncle Isham rubbed his head a good deal at this remark.

"Dunno wot we gwine to do 'bout dat," he said.

"Brudder Jeemes lib free miles off, an' mos' like he's out ditchin'.

Couldn't git him h'yar dis ebenin', nohow." "Well den," said Aunt Patsy, "you conduc' sarvices yourse'f, Uncle Isham, an' we kin have prar meetin', anyhow." Uncle Isham having consented to this, he put his oxen under the care of a small boy, and collecting in Aunt Patsy's room the five colored women and girls who were in attendance upon her, he conducted "prars," making an extemporaneous petition which comprehended all the probable contingencies of the journey, even to the accident of the right wheel of the cart coming off, which the old man very reverently asserted that he would have lynched with a regular pin instead of a broken poker handle, if he could have found one.