but
everybody calls her Hipsy."

"Evidently," said Isaac Coffin, "she is a lady who is up to snuff."

Again the company laughed.

"You may be sure she never minces things, but speaks her mind, whether
anybody likes it or not," Robert replied.

"Are the gentlemen invited to the tea-parties?" John Coffin asked.

"Not to the afternoon parties, neither are the young ladies; the old
ladies like to be by themselves while sipping their tea. Perhaps they
think it would not be dignified on the part of the gentlemen to devote
the afternoons to gossip," Robert replied.

"Do not the young ladies meet?" Miss Shrimpton asked.

"Not as do our mothers, but they have their own good times,--their
quilting parties. In the country every girl as soon as she can sew
begins to make patchwork. When they get enough for a quilt, they
invite their acquaintances to the quilting, and spend the afternoon in
talking about--well, I can't exactly say what they do talk about.
Perhaps you ladies can tell better than I."

The ladies smiled at his pleasant way of indicating what was uppermost
in the thoughts of young maidens on such delightful occasions.

"Do not the gentlemen participate in some way?" Miss Quincy inquired.

"Oh yes; we join them in the evening, after they are through with the
quilting, and try to make things lively. We play blindman's-buff,
hide the handkerchief, roast beef behind your back, come Philander,
stage-coach, and other games, and have a jolly time. The ladies serve
us with bread and butter, doughnuts, cookies, tarts, gingerbread, and
tea. We guess riddles and tell ghost stories."

"How delightful!" Miss Newville exclaimed.

"A little later than this we have huskings in the barns, seated around
a heap of corn. Husking over, we eat pudding, baked beans, mince,
apple, and pumpkin pie, and top off with pop-corn, apples, and cider.
After supper the girls clear away the dishes; then we push the table
into one corner of the kitchen, Julius Caesar mounts it with his
fiddle, and we dance jigs and quicksteps. The girl who first found a
red ear while husking, and was kissed before she could throw it into
the basket, is privileged to lead the dance."

"How I should enjoy it," said Miss Shrimpton.

"Finding the red ear?" queried Isaac Coffin.

"Oh no,--you know I didn't mean that; but having such a jolly time
with nobody saying it isn't proper," Miss Shrimpton replied with a
blush mantling her cheek.

"Ruth, daughter,"--