CHAPTER X
OFF AGAIN
"More dirt over here!"
"Come on now, boys! Lively's the word!"
"Hustle along!"
"Is she rising any more?"
"Strike up a song, boys, and run; don't walk!"
These were only a few of the remarks that could be heard along the levee that night. The rain drizzled down at intervals, as the colored men, in long lines, with wheelbarrows, brought up earth and stones, to strengthen the banks against which the muddy Mississippi beat and surged. The levee was like a dam along the course of the stream, and back of this dam lay the town. If the levee gave way the town might be wiped out.
Now and then a group of the negro laborers would break out into what was probably some old plantation song, and to the rude but not unmusical melody their feet moved in quicker
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