of rooms with evergreens and holly, the absorption of
store-room and kitchen, the never-ending consultations with the
cook--all the wonderful machinations, the deep mysteries and
incantations, which would result in glittering hospitality later on.
Realizing this, they suffered lesser matters to pass unheeded, caring
naught for social converse, intellectual pleasures, or intelligence of
church or state. Women might elope, men embezzle, dynasties fall,
ministries change, or public faith be broken, and they viewed the
result, if indeed they noted it, with absolute composure. But let eggs
be unattainable, jellies become murky, the fruit in cake or pudding
sink hopelessly to the bottom, and Rachel weeping for her children
could not have made more wild acclaim.

At Lanarth, the week of preparation (good old Virginia housekeepers
always allowed a week at least, and Mrs. Mason adhered to the
time-honored custom) passed busily. Every thing turned out unusually
well, and the store-room was a picture. Jellies, in slender glasses,
glittered in exquisite amber perfection, or glowed warmly crimson, with
points of brighter hue where the sun fell on them. Heaps of
old-fashioned "snowballs" hid golden hearts under a pure white
frosting, and cakes, baked in fantastic shapes, like Turks' heads and
fluted melons, were rich, warm, brown, or white and gleaming as
Christmas snow. The pastry showed all shades from palest buff to
tender delicate brown, and for depth of tone there were their rich
interiors of dark mincemeat and golden custards. Of the pleasures of
this beautiful world not the least is the sight of beautiful food.

And it was Christmas eve.

The shadows were gathering, and the sun sending in his resignation to
the night, when Pocahontas, tying on her pretty scarlet hood and
wrappings, armed herself with a small basket of corn, and proceeded to
the poultry yard to house her turkeys for the night. They usually
roosted in an old catalpa tree near the back gate, earlier in the
season; but as Christmas approached Pocahontas found it expedient to
turn the key upon them, since leaving them out caused weaker brothers
to offend. As she passed the kitchen door she called to little Sawney,
whose affection for his grandmother increased at Christmas, to come out
and help her.

The little fellow had that morning been invested by a doting parent
with a "pa'r o' sto' boots" purchased entirely with reference to the
requirements of