--In Tennessee and Kentucky, slaves busy in the coalings, at the forge, by
the furnace-blaze, or at the corn-shucking;
In Virginia, the planter's son returning after a long absence, joyfully
welcomed and kissed by the aged mulatto nurse.
On rivers, boatmen safely moored at nightfall, in their boats, under
shelter of high banks,
Some of the younger men dance to the sound of the banjo or fiddle--others
sit on the gunwale, smoking and talking;
Late in the afternoon the mocking-bird, the American mimic, singing in the
Great Dismal Swamp-there are the greenish waters, the resinous odour, the
plenteous moss, the cypress-tree, and the juniper-tree.
--Northward, young men of Mannahatta--the target company from an excursion
returning home at evening--the musket-muzzles all bear bunches of
flowers presented by women;
Children at play--or on his father's lap a young boy fallen asleep, (how
his lips move! how he smiles in his sleep!)
The scout riding on horseback over the plains west of the Mississippi--he
ascends a knoll and sweeps his eye around.
California life--the miner, bearded, dressed in his rude costume--the
staunch California friendship--the sweet air--the graves one, in
passing, meets, solitary, just aside the horse-path;
Down in Texas, the cotton-field, the negro-cabins--drivers driving mules or
oxen before rude carts--cotton-bales piled on banks and wharves.
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