their neighbors, who had spent much time, both day and night hunting for the children, were firm believers in all kinds of charms and sorceries. There was a colored man living somewhere in Morrison's Cove, who had revealed some very mysterious things by the use of a peach-tree limb. This man was sent for to practice his art or magic. When he came to the home of the lost children he procured a forked peach-tree limb, with the branches of equal size. Then taking a branch in each hand he held it up at arm's length in front of him, with the point where the two branches united pointing upwards. Then he commenced moving slowly around in a circle, and when he came to the direction the children had gone or the place they would now be found the top of the branch would turn in his hand and point in that direction, and would remain in that position just as long as he traveled in the direction of the children. But if he lost his bearing the top of the stick would turn back and point toward him. This man could tell of many mysterious things he had discovered with the peach-tree limb. He could tell to an inch where a stream of water could be found hundreds of feet beneath the surface, and he could tell exactly where two
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