a young lady from St. Paul; and the
biggest brother had his mother. Above them, as they promenaded,
balanced, and swung, waved the black felt hat that the Dutchman had worn
when he took his long trip over the prairie to invite them. Each family
he visited had pinned a ribbon to its rim; and now it swayed back and
forth, a gay and varicolored challenge to the hands reached out to grasp
it.

The army chaplain was in the next room; and, as the quadrille closed in
a roistering polka and a waltz struck up, he clapped in time to the
couples that were circling before him, their hands on each other's
shoulders, and their voices joining merrily with the music:

"In Lauterbach hab' ich mein Strumf verlor'n,
Und ohne Strumf geh' ich nicht heim;
Ich gehe doch wieder zu Lauterbach hin
Und kauf' mir ein Strumf fuer mein Bein."

Now and then a couple drew aside and sat down a moment to rest. But soon
they were back on the floor again, whirling and laughing and stamping
their feet, and raising clouds of dust from the rough plank floors to
their scarlet faces.

Out of doors there was less noise, but no lack of fun. Smudge fires
burned in a wide circle about the house to repel the hungry mosquitos
that, with high, monotonous battle-songs, stormed the smoky barrier
between them and the inner circle of horses and oxen feeding from
wagon-boxes. Nearer the building, and set about the carefully raked yard
on barrels and boxes, were Jack-o'-lanterns made of pumpkins, that gave
out the uncertain, flickering light of tallow dips through their
goggle-eyes and grinning mouths.

In and out among the wagons, fires, and lanterns the children were
playing hide-and-go-seek, screaming with excitement as they scampered in
every direction to secrete themselves, or lying still and breathless as
the boy who was "it" hunted them cautiously, with one eye searching for
moving shadows and the other fixed upon the wagon-wheel that was the
goal. On being sent out of the house to give the dancers room, the boys
had raised a joyous clamor over their banishment, and begun a game of
crack-the-whip; while the girls, not wishing to soil their clothes, had
walked to and fro in front of the house, with their arms around each
other, and watched the dancing. But when the Swede boy, who was chosen
for the snapper, was so worn and breathless with being popped from the
end of the rushing line that he could run no longer, boys