cious.

At Farmer Loper's harvest-table sweet milk and fresh buttermilk were
among the drinks, but most of the men preferred coffee, and drank it hot
out of the saucers. Some sets of dishes included tiny cup-plates, in
which to set the coffee-cups that they might not stain the table-cloth;
but Mrs. Loper had none, and the men scraped their cups on the edge of
the saucers before placing them on the clean white cloth. One man drank
six cups of coffee, then said he guessed he wouldn't take any more,
adding, "It's best to be moderate." At this all the men burst into a
roar of laughter, except one, who grew red in the face and ate his
dinner in silence. It seemed that while hauling that day one of his
horses had balked, and in his anger he had lifted one foot to kick it,
but missed it, lost his balance, and fell. He arose from the fall
somewhat ashamed, and remarked, "It's best to be moderate." This
incident had amused the others very much, and any allusion to it caused
laughter.

The women waited on the table, not in the sense of changing plates and
bringing fresh courses, for all the dinner was before them, but
replenishing cups and glasses when they were empty, refilling the
vegetable-tureens and bread-plates, cutting the pies and cake and
passing them around, and serving out the canned peaches and the custard
in small dishes. They were also careful to see that the pickles and
preserves were passed to every one.

With most of the men present Elvira was acquainted: they were the
patrons of her school, and found time in the midst of eating and general
conversation to ask how Johnnie was a-comin' on in his spellin', or if
Annie was gettin' along well in her 'rithmetic, adding, "I'll be wantin'
her to calkilate interest for me by and by." Bert Mowrer's father
inquired about his boy, then added cheerfully, "If he don't behave, lick
him,--lick him: that's what I tell every teacher."

Farmer Loper and the engineer fell to discussing how many bushels of
wheat to the acre the neighboring farms had produced, and how many this
would probably produce, with various comments on the weather and the
soil. A little farther down the table a young farmer was telling of the
speed made by his brown mare Kitty,--how she passed every team on the
road, and that he wouldn't take a hundred and fifty dollars for her; and
farther still, two or three were discussing the affairs of an absent
neighbor,--how he had bought the Caldwell place, but, no