ne
pre-eminent, for the supper was off her mind and she could enjoy
herself. There were shouts of merriment as the blithe old lady twirled
the platter, hunted the squirrel, and went to Jerusalem like a girl of
sixteen; her cap in a ruinous condition, and every seam of the purple
dress straining like sails in a gale. It was great fun, but at
midnight it came to an end, and the young folks, still bubbling over
with innocent jollity, went jingling away along the snowy hills,
unanimously pronouncing Mrs. Basset's party the best of the season.

"Never had such a good time in my life!" exclaimed Sophie, as the
family stood together in the kitchen where the candles among the
wreaths were going out, and the floor was strewn with wrecks of past
joy.

"I'm proper glad, dear. Now you all go to bed and lay as late as you
like to-morrow. I'm so kinder worked up I couldn't sleep, so Saul and
me will put things to rights without a mite of noise to disturb you;"
and Aunt Plumy sent them off with a smile that was a benediction,
Sophie thought.

"The dear old soul speaks as if midnight was an unheard-of hour for
Christians to be up. What would she say if she knew how we seldom go
to bed till dawn in the ball season? I'm so wide awake I've half a
mind to pack a little. Randal must go at two, he says, and we shall
want his escort," said Emily, as the girls laid away their brocades in
the press in Sophie's room.

"I'm not going. Aunt can't spare me, and there is nothing to go for
yet," answered Sophie, beginning to take the white chrysanthemums out
of her pretty hair.

"My dear child, you will die of ennui up here. Very nice for a week
or so, but frightful for a winter. We are going to be very gay, and
cannot get on without you," cried Emily dismayed at the suggestion.

"You will have to, for I'm not coming. I am very happy here, and so
tired of the frivolous life I lead in town, that I have decided to
try a better one," and Sophie's mirror reflected a face full of the
sweetest content.

"Have you lost your mind? experienced religion? or any other dreadful
thing? You always were odd, but this last freak is the strangest of
all. What will your guardian say, and the world?" added Emily in the
awe-stricken tone of one who stood in fear of the omnipotent Mrs.
Grundy.

"Guardy will be glad to be rid of me, and I don't care that for the
world," cried Sophie, snapping her fingers with a joyful sort of
recklessness which completed Emily