During the day, the usual sweet-potato coffee was served. In the
cool April nights, a cheerful fire always blazed in the open fireplace
of the parlor, by it was set a pot of very strong coffee, upon which
the ladies relied to keep them awake. One at a time would doze in her
chair or upon the sofa, while the others kept watch, walking from
window to window, listening at the fast-locked door, starting at every
sound. Occasionally the dogs would bark furiously: "There they are!"
cried everybody, and rising to their feet, with bated breath and
wildly-beating hearts, they would listen until convinced that their
four-footed friends had given a false alarm. Those of the
women-servants who had no husbands begged every night to sleep "in de
house." They were terrified. Their mattresses strewed the floors, and
it really seemed as if they were a kind of protection, although they
always fell asleep and snored so loudly as to drive the ladies, who
wanted to listen for outside sounds, to the verge of distraction. Some
one would occasionally interrupt the noise by administering to each in
turn a good shake or insisting upon a change of position, but at best
the lull was temporary.
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