it belonging to our
host, giving our own to a servant to be dried.

Arrayed in the fresh apparel, we soon rejoined our friends in the
sitting-room. The new garments fitted the Colonel tolerably well, but
though none too long, they were a world too wide for me, and, as my wet
hair hung in smooth, flat folds down my cheeks, and my limp shirt-collar
fell over my linsey coat, I looked for all the world like a cross
between a theatrical Aminadab Sleek and Sir John Falstaff, with the
stuffing omitted. When our hostess caught sight of me in this new garb,
she rubbed her hands together in great glee, and, springing to her feet,
gave vent to a perfect storm of laughter--jerking out between the
explosions:

'Why--you--you--look jest like--a scare-crow.'

There was no mistaking that hearty, hoidenish manner; and seizing both
of her hands in mine, I shouted: 'I've found you out--you're a
'country-woman' of mine--a clear-blooded Yankee!'

'What! _you_ a Yankee!' she exclaimed, still laughing, 'and here with
this horrid 'seceshener,' as they call him.'

'True as preachin', ma'am,' I replied, adopting the drawl--'all the way
from Down East, and Union, tu, stiff as buckram.'

'Du tell!' she exclaimed, swinging my hands together as she held them in
hers. 'If I warn't hitched to this ere feller, I'd give ye a smack right
on the spot. I'm _so_ glad to see ye.'

'Do it, Sally--never mind _me_,' cried her husband, joining heartily in
the merriment.

Seizing the collar of my coat with both hands, she drew my face down
till my lips almost touched hers, (I was preparing to blush, and the
Colonel shouted, 'Come, come, I shall tell his wife,') but then, turning
quickly on her heel, she threw herself into a chair, exclaiming, 'I
wouldn't mind, but the _old man would be jealous;_' and adding to the
Colonel, 'You needn't be troubled, sir; no Yankee girl will kiss _you_
till you change your politics.'

'Give me that inducement, and I'll change them on the spot,' said the
Colonel.

'No, no, Dave, 'twouldn't do,' replied the planter, 'the conversion
wouldn't be genuwine--besides, such things arn't proper, except with
blood-relations--and all the Yankees, you know, are first-cousins.'

The conversation then subsided into a more placid mood, but lost none of
its genial good-humor. Refreshments were soon set before us, and while
partaking of them I gathered from our hostess that she was a Vermont
country-girl, who, some three years before,