Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/124

 darkness of the night, making the figures of the singers stand out in weird relief against the shadowy forest.

The nights were seldom cool enough to make a bonfire necessary but the Gullahs loved the warm friendliness of the fire. They sang and dozed and found some measure of happiness in the eternal quietude on the edge of the whispering swamp.

Thus quietly in the Carolina low country was the girlhood of Linda Dixon lived. It was a kingdom of rice. All the neighbors worked in the rice-fields. They lived isolated lives,