me!

So Briar danced with the first man who asked her, and Patty did likewise.
They danced with the ease and lightness and grace of children in whom the
accomplishment is born. Nancy's clumsy efforts, and the clumsy efforts of
her friends, were nowhere beside them.

"That little girl," said a rough-headed farmer, pointing to Patty as he
spoke, "dances like the foam of the sea. I never saw anything like it in
all my life."

"But why doesn't the elder Miss Dale dance?" asked Farmer King.

He had noticed that she was declining one partner after another.

"Come, Miss Paulie," he said, going to her side: "this won't do. May I
have the pleasure of a barn-dance with you, miss? You can't refuse me."

Pauline did find it impossible to refuse the good man. He took her hand
and led her out, and presently she, too, was being whirled round and
round. But her sense of weariness increased, and the heavy pain and
bewilderment at her heart grew worse. Oh, why had she come? Once the
farmer, looking at her, saw tears in her eyes. In a moment he stopped
dancing. He took her hand and led her to the other side of the tent.

"You dance beautifully, miss," he said; "not quite so light as your
little sister, but I am proud to be seen with you, miss, all the same.
And now, if I may make so bold, what is the matter with you, Miss Pauline
Dale?"

"Nothing," answered Pauline.

"Don't tell me," replied the farmer. "Is it in reason that a little lady
like yourself would have tears in her eyes at a moment like the present
if there was nothing the matter? Is it in reason, miss?"

"Oh, I ought not to have come!" said Pauline.

The farmer's face grew rather red. He looked full at Pauline for a
moment; then he said:

"I can't speak out now, for it's only the beginning of the fun. There's a
great deal planned, and you are in the thick of it, but before you go
back home I'll have a word with you; so cheer up, my pretty little miss,
for things that aren't right can be put right. You trust Farmer King for
that."

Pauline did cheer up. She felt that the farmer was her friend, and she
also knew that he was a friend worth having. The other girls met her once
or twice, and Patty whispered:

"Oh, there never was anything like this before! I could be naughty every
single night of my life to have such fun!"

The dance was followed by the feast, and the feast was A1. When it was
over there was a moment of silence. Then Nancy, accompanied by Briar an