"These people seem to have had their eyes open. Coming events cast their shadows before!" said Russel.
After walking around, the chorus seated themselves at the side of the area, and the space behind was filled up with a dense sea of heads—all the servants and plantation hands.
"I declare," said Russel, looking round on the crowd of dark faces, "this sable cloud is turning a silver lining with a witness! How neat and pretty that row of children look!" And, as they spoke, a procession of the children of Anne's school came filing round in the same manner that the other had done, singing their school-songs, and casting flowers before the company. After this, they seated themselves on low seats in front of all the others.
Dulcimer and four of his companions now came into the centre.
"There," said Anne, "Dulcimer is going to be the centrepiece. He is the troubadour."
Dulcimer, in fact, commenced a kind of recitative, to the tune "Mas'r's in the cold, cold ground." After singing a few lines, the quartet took up the chorus, and their voices were really magnificent.
"Why," said Nina, "it seems to me they are beginning in a very doleful way."
"Oh," said Anne, "wait a minute. This is the old mas'r, I fancy. We shall soon hear the tune changed."
And accordingly, Dulcimer, striking into a new tune, began to rehearse the coming in of a new master.