nd
eyes.

"Play fair!" shouted the lads. "He should 'kiss her quick and let her
go.'"

"Oh, he let her go first!" said the others.

"'Kiss her quick,'" reiterated the boys.

"He can't now," answered the girls.

The voices took up the refrain: "Don't you muss the ruffles, O!" and
the game went on. The old clock gossiped gleefully, its tongue
repeating as plainly as words:

"Let-her-go!--ho!--ho!--one--two--three!"

Three o'clock! Admonishingly rang out the hour, the jovial face of the
clock looking sterner than was its wont. It glowered now like a
preacher in his pulpit upon a sinful congregation. Enough of
"snatch-and-catch'em;" enough of Hull's Victory or the Opera Reel;
let the weary fiddler descend from his bull-rush chair, for soon the
touch of dawn will be seen in the eastern sky! The merry-making began
to wane and already the sound of wagon-wheels rattled over the log
road away from the tavern. Yes, they were singing, and, as Hepsibeth
leaned her head on Josiah's shoulder, they uplifted their voices in
the good old orthodox hymn, "Come, Ye Sinners," for thus they courted
and worshiped in olden times.

"Good-night, every one!" said a sweet voice, as Constance passed
calmly on, with not a ruffle mussed.

"Good-night," answered the patroon, a sparkle in his eyes. "I was
truly a booby."

"What can you mean?" she laughed.

"There's many a slip 'twixt--lip and lip!" exclaimed Susan.

With heightened color the young girl turned, and as she did so her
look rested on the soldier. His glance was cold, almost strange, and,
meeting it, she half-started and then smiled, slowly mounting the
stairs. He looked away, but the patroon never took his eyes from her
until she had vanished. Afar, rising and falling on the clear air,
sounded the voices of the singers:

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;"

and finally, softer and softer, until the melody melted into silence:

"Praise Him above, ye Heavenly H-o-s-t--"

"One good turn deserves another," said Barnes to Saint-Prosper, when
Susan and Kate had likewise retired. "Follow me, sir--to the kitchen!
No questions; but come!"

CHAPTER V

A CONFERENCE IN THE KITCHEN

A keen observer might have noticed that the door of the inn kitchen
had been kept swinging to and fro as certain ones in the audience had
stolen cautiously, but repeatedly, in and out of the culinary
apa