Chapters 26, 27 and 28 Summary

August is consumed with misery at the prospect of being uncovered as the real perpetrator in Marget's bedroom and cowers in fear in his dark room. Suddenly, the silence is broken by a spectral figure approaching August's room. It comes inside and begins singing "Buffalo Gals, Can't You Come Out Tonight." The minstrel man introduces himself as the Negro slave of a South Carolina colonel living in the year 1840.

The minstrel man has come to make August feel better and begins to play a banjo and August tries to imagine the scenes the man sings about in some place called "de Swanee River." Soon, the man disappears in a cloud and is replaced by none other than No. 44, delighted with his latest trick that shows August the limitless bounds of time and space.

August shares his latest predicament involving the episode...