A Virginia Cavalier by Molly Elliot Seawell

It seemed to George that he had not been in bed an hour before he heard, in the gray glimmer of dawn, Billy's voice, crying:

"Chris'mus. Marse George. Chris'mus! an' jes listen to dem niggers singin' under de winder! " Although a sound sleeper, George always waked quickly, and in an instant he recognized the Christmas melody that floated upward from the ground outside. A dozen or so of the field-hands were marching around the house just as the first faint grayness of the Christmas Day appeared, and singing, in their rich, sweet, untrained voices, a song with the merry refrain,