ol-ma'am's visit afforded. The faded family photographs and old
daguerreotypes were brought out for her entertainment, and she was told
that "This is Aunt Lizzie Barnwell: she lives in Grant County, and this
is her husband, and these are her children. This is Grandpa and Grandma
Brown, and this is grandma's brother, ma's uncle. For a long time he
thought that was a cancer on his nose, but it turned out to be only a
wart. And this is Mr. and Mrs. Holmes: they used to live neighbors to
us, but now they have moved to Kansas. And this is Johnnie and Sarah and
Nelson Holmes. Nelson used to be real mean: he pulled our hair at
school, and threw clods of dirt at us when we were coming home of
nights, and we always thought he stole our watermelons, and we were glad
when he moved away; but we liked Sarah and Johnnie." And so on through
the list of relatives and acquaintances. On these visits Elvira
generally slept on a high feather bed in the best room, or in a little
bedroom opening from the parlor,--for not all the homes were as humble
as Sapp's,--and the oldest daughter of the family slept with her. On
Saturday forenoon she often went berry-picking with the children,
crossing the corn-fields in the hot sun, climbing fences, and so gaining
the thickets or woods where the blackberry-vines grew wild, with gallons
of ripe berries ready for nimble finders. "Look out for snakes!" the
children used to call to each other when deep in the bushes, but they
never saw anything more than a harmless garter-snake, or perhaps a
water-snake in the swamp. Saturday afternoons she sat and talked with
the farmer's wife, assisting in the sewing or quilting or whatever work
of this kind was on hand; and when she rode home in the cool of the
evening it was always with some little delicacy in her basket for her
grandmother,--a glass tumbler of honey, a cake, some pickles or
preserves, or a quart bottle of maple syrup, which her hostess had given
her at parting.

Near the end of the term, Maggie Loper invited Elvira to go home with
her Friday night and spend Saturday. "Mother says for you to come. We're
going to thrash, Saturday, and we'll have a big dinner and lots of fun."
She meant that they were to thresh wheat, and it was the stir and
excitement of this event which she called fun. Elvira accepted the
invitation, and went home with Maggie at the time appointed. She felt at
home among these farm festivals, and enjoyed them, the work included,
for sh