see this day.

After breakfast Miss T. drove us to Oaklands, our future home. The road
leading to the house was nearly choked with weeds. The house itself was
in a dilapidated condition, and the yard and garden had a sadly
neglected look. But there were roses in bloom; we plucked handfuls of
feathery, fragrant acacia-blossoms; ivy crept along the ground and under
the house. The freed people on the place seemed glad to see us. After
talking with them, and giving some directions for cleaning the house, we
drove to the school, in which I was to teach. It is kept in the Baptist
Church,--a brick building, beautifully situated in a grove of live-oaks.
These trees are the first objects that attract one's attention here: not
that they are finer than our Northern oaks, but because of the singular
gray moss with which every branch is heavily draped. This hanging moss
grows on nearly all the trees, but on none so luxuriantly as on the
live-oak. The pendants are often four or five feet long, very graceful
and beautiful, but giving the trees a solemn, almost funereal look. The
school was opened in September. Many of the children had, however,
received instruction during the summer. It was evident that they had
made very rapid improvement, and we noticed with pleasure how bright and
eager to learn many of them seemed. They sang in rich, sweet tones, and
with a peculiar swaying motion of the body, which made their singing the
more effective. They sang "Marching Along," with great spirit, and then
one of their own hymns, the air of which is beautiful and touching:--

"My sister, you want to git religion,
Go down in de Lonesome Valley,
My brudder, you want to git religion,
Go down in de Lonesome Valley.