ly.

"Is the Doctor here?"

"Yes, indeed. He drove me. He always comes to these things. They
generally need him before they get through, and it often saves him a
long trip into the mountains if he's on the spot when things happen."

"I dare say his presence prevents a good many quarrels."

"Maybe so; but Ah should hate to have any mo' fights than there are.
There's always whisky about, you know."

"If the chief crop of this country could be changed, what a blessing it
would be!"

"Ah don't know as it would make much difference as long as potatoes
were left."

"And thirst."

"There's Bob now. O-oh, Bob!" she called, waving a fat hand to her son
as he cantered across the open on his gray.

Bob looked about for the source of the call, and turned his horse
towards the tree.

"He's growing handsome, Mrs. Morgan," said Mrs. Carroll, in an
undertone, as the tall fellow leaped to the ground, slipped the bridle
over his arm, and pulled off his cap.

"He looks as his father did at his age," returned Mrs. Morgan, fondly,
glancing across to where her husband was talking to a group of lank
mountaineers from whom he was hardly to be distinguished.

"It's right nice of you to come this afternoon, Mrs. Carroll," Bob was
saying. "The people always appreciate it. What is it, mother? Those
boys? Oh, they're having a game of ball; and the men you see over
yonder are throwing horseshoes over a peg--with mighty poor skill, too.
Here come Patton McRae and Susy. Excuse me. I'll help him with his
horses," for Patton's black mare hated the harness even more than she
did the saddle, and was doing her best to demoralize her mate and
overturn the buggy.

Sydney, entering the field from the State Road, glanced past the
tethered mules and the chair-laden wagons, from which the horses had
been taken, to where Bob sat in the carriage beside Susy, saying
something very pretty to her, if downcast lids and a blush are any
evidence; in reality, teasing her about an absent sweetheart.

Wandering farther, her eyes saw the quoit-throwers, and the groups of
women and children sitting in the shade, enjoying an interchange of
gossip with the zest of infrequent meetings. She saw the clusters of
laughing negroes, and the tent where Pete and his wife were doing a
vigorous business in cakes and ice-cream and lemonade. She waved her
hand to her grandmother and Mrs. Morgan. She noticed the men and boys
who strolled with apparent aimlessness towards