with me."

He put the glass to her lips, drank what she left, and rising, placed
her in his seat with the decisive air which few resisted.

"You take no thought for yourself and are doing too much; sit here a
little, and let me take a few steps where you have taken many."

He served her, and standing at her back, bent now and then to speak,
still with that softened look upon the face so seldom stirred by the
gentler emotions that lay far down in that deep heart of his; for never
had he felt so solitary.

All things must have an end, even a family feast, and by the time the
last boy's buttons peremptorily announced, 'Thus far shalt thou go and no
farther,' all professed themselves satisfied, and a general uprising
took place. The surplus population were herded in parlor and chambers,
while a few energetic hands cleared away, and with much clattering of
dishes and wafting of towels, left grandma's spandy clean premises as
immaculate as ever. It was dark when all was done, so the kitchen was
cleared, the candles lighted, Patience's door set open, and little Nat
established in an impromptu orchestra, composed of a table and a chair,
whence the first squeak of his fiddle proclaimed that the ball had
begun.

Everybody danced; the babies stacked on Patience's bed, or penned behind
chairs, sprawled and pranced in unsteady mimicry of their elders.
Ungainly farmers, stiff with labor, recalled their early days and
tramped briskly as they swung their wives about with a kindly pressure
of the hard hands that had worked so long together. Little pairs toddled
gravely through the figures, or frisked promiscuously in a grand
conglomeration of arms and legs. Gallant cousins kissed pretty cousins
at exciting periods, and were not rebuked. Mark wrought several of these
incipient lovers to a pitch of despair, by his devotion to the comeliest
damsels, and the skill with which he executed unheard-of evolutions
before their admiring eyes; Moor led out the poorest and the plainest
with a respect that caused their homely faces to shine, and their scant
skirts to be forgotten. Warwick skimmed his five years partner through
the air in a way that rendered her speechless with delight; and Sylvia
danced as she never danced before. With sticky-fingered boys, sleepy
with repletion, but bound to last it out; with rough-faced men who paid
her paternal compliments; with smart youths who turned sheepish with
that white lady's hand in their big brown