University of Virginia Library

6. VI.

Beneath the glimmer of more candles than Mrs. Wetherbe
had previously burned at once, the supper was spread, and it
was very nice and plentiful; for, more mindful of the wood-chopper's
appetites than of Mrs. Randall's notions of propriety,
there were at least a dozen broiled chickens, besides other substantial
dishes, on the table. I need not attempt a full enumeration
of the preserves, cakes, pies, puddings, and other such
luxuries, displayed on Mrs. Wetherbe's table, and which it is
usual for country housewifes to provide with liberal hands on
occasions of this sort.

Ellen was very proud, as she took the last survey before
sounding the horn for the men-folks; and well she might be so,
for it was chiefly through her ingenuity and active agency that
every thing was so tastefully and successfully prepared.

Mrs. Randall still made herself officious, but with less assurance
than at first. Ellen was in nowise inclined to yield her
authority, and indeed almost the entire responsibility rested on
her, for poor Mrs. Wetherbe was sadly out of spirits in consequence
of the non-appearance of Helph and Jenny. All possible
chances of evil were exaggerated by her, and in her simple
apprehension there were a thousand dangers which did not in
reality exist. In spite of the festivities about her, she sometimes
found it impossible to restrain her tears. Likely enough,

she said, the dear boy had got into the canal, or the river, and
was drownded, or his critter might have become frightened—
there were so many skeerry things in town—and so run away
with him, and broke every thing to pieces.

Once or twice she walked to the neighboring hill, in the hope
of seeing him in the distance, but in vain—he did not come;
the supper could be delayed no longer, and, sitting by the window
that overlooked the highway, she continued her anxious
watching. Not so the mother; she gave herself little trouble
as to whether any accident had befallen her son; perhaps she
guessed the cause of his delay, but, so or not, none were gayer
than she.

Her beauty had once been of a showy order; she was not
yet very much faded; and on this occasion, though her gown
was of calico, her hair was tastefully arranged, and she was
really the best dressed woman in the assembly. Of this she
seemed aware, and she glided into flirtations with the country
beaux, in a free and easy way which greatly surprised some
of us unsophisticated girls; in fact, one or two elderly bachelors
were sorely disappointed, as well as amazed, when they understood
that the lady from town was none other than Helph's
mother! I cannot remember a time when my spirits had much
of the careless buoyancy which makes youth so blessed, and at
this time I was little more than a passive observer, for which
reason, perhaps, I remember more correctly the incidents of
the evening.

The table was spread among the trees in the door-yard, which
was illuminated with tallow candles, in very simple paper lanterns;
the snowy linen waved in the breeze, and the fragrance
of tea and coffee was, for the time, pleasanter than that of
flowers; but flowers were in requisition, and such as were in
bloom, large or small, bright or pale, were gathered to adorn
tresses of every hue, curled and braided with the most elaborate
care. At a later hour, some of them were transferred to
the buttonholes of favored admirers.

What an outbreak of merriment there was, when, at twilight,
down the hill that sloped against the woods, came the gay band
of choppers, with coats swung on their arms, and axes gleaming

over their shoulders. Every thing became irresistibly provocative
of enjoyment, and from every window and every nook
that could be occupied by the quilters, went mingled jests and
laughter.

The quilt was finished, but Mehitable and Elizabeth remained
close within the chamber, whether to contemplate the completed
work, or to regale themselves with each other's accumulations
of scandal, I shall not attempt to guess.

A large tin lantern was placed on the top of the pump, and
beside it was a wash-tub filled with water, which was intended
as a general resort for the ablutions of the young men. Besides
the usual roller-towel, which hung by the kitchen door, there
were two or three extra ones attached to the boughs of the
apple-tree, by the well; and the bar of yellow soap, procured
for the occasion, lay on a shingle, conveniently near, while a
paper comb-case dangled from a bough betwixt the towels.

These toilet facilities were deemed by some of the party
altogether superfluous, and their wooden pocket-combs and
handkerchiefs were modestly preferred. During the fixing up
the general gayety found vent in a liberal plashing and dashing
of water on each other, as also in wrestling bouts, and contests
of mere words, at the conclusion of which the more aristocratic
of the gentlemen resumed their coats, while others, disdaining
ceremony, remained, not only at the supper but during
the entire evening, in their shirt sleeves, and with silk handkerchiefs
bound around their waists, as is the custom with reapers.

“Come, boys!” called Ellen, who assumed a sort of motherly
tone and manner toward all the company, “what does make
you stay away so?”

The laughter among the girls subsided, as they arranged
themselves in a demure row along one side of the table, and
the jests fell at once to a murmur as the boys found their places
opposite. “Now, don't all speak at once,” said Ellen: “how
will you have your coffee, Quincy?”

Mr. Quincy Adams Claverel said he was not particular: he
would take a little sugar and a little cream if she had them
handy, if not, it made no difference.

“Tea or coffee, Mehitable?” she said next; but the young

woman addressed did not drink either—coffee made her drowsy-like,
and if she should drink a cup of tea, she should not sleep
a wink all night.

Elizabeth said, Mehitt was just like herself—she drank a
great deal, and strong. The jesting caused much laughter, and
indeed the mirth was quite irrepressible—on the part of the
girls, because of the joyous occasion, and their greater excitability,
and on that of the young men, because of the green
and yellow twisted bottles that had glistened that afternoon in
the ivy which grew along the woods: even more for this, perhaps,
than for the bright eyes before them.

One said she drank her tea “naked;” another, that Ellen
might give her half a cup first rate—she would rather have a little
and have it good, than have a great deal and not have it good.
And in this she meant not the slightest offence or insinuation.

“I hope,” said Mr. Wetherbe, speaking in a diffident voice,
and pushing back his thin gray hair, “I hope you will none of
you think hard of my woman for not coming to sarve you herself—she
is in the shadder of trouble, but she as well as myself
thanks you all for the good turn you have done us, and
wishes you to make yourselves at home, and frolic as long as
you are a mind to;” and the good man retired to the house to
give his wife such comfort as he could.

The shadow of their sorrow did not rest long on the group
at the table, and the laughter, for its temporary suppression,
was louder than before. There were one or two exceptions,
however, among the gay company. Poor Hetty Martin, as
her eyes ran along the line of smiling faces and failed of the
object of their search, felt them droop heavily, and her smiles
and words were alike forced. Between her and all the pleasures
of the night stood the vision of a fair lady, conjured by
the evil words of Mehitable and Elizabeth, and scarcely would
the tears stay back any longer, when her light-hearted neighbors
rallied her as to the cause of her dejection. At the sound of a
hoofstroke on the highway, her quick and deep attention betrayed
the interest she felt in the absent doctor.

“Why hast thou no music on thy tongue, fair maiden?”
asked a pale, slender young man, sitting near by; and looking

up, her eyes encountered the blue and melancholy ones of a
young cooper, who had lately neglected the adze for the pen,
in the use of which he was not likely to obtain much facility.
His flaxen hair hung in curls down his shoulders; he wore his
collar reversed, and a sprig of cedar in the buttonhole of his
vest, which was of red and yellow colors; otherwise his dress
was not fantastical, though he presented the appearance of one
whose inclinations outstripped his means, perhaps. A gold
chain attached to a silver watch, and a bracelet of hair on the
left wrist, fastened with a small tinsel clasp, evinced that his
tastes had not been cultivated with much care, though his face
attested some natural refinement. He had recently published in
the “Ladies' Garland,” two poems, entitled and opening in
this way:

These very original and ingenious verses he took from his
pocket and submitted to the critical acumen of Hetty, saying
he should really take it as a great favor if she would tell him
frankly what her opinion was of the repetitions in the last line
of the first stanza, as also what she thought of the idea of comparing
a child to a flower, and of Death's transplanting it from
earth to heaven.

Hetty knew nothing of poetry, but she possessed an instinctive
sense of politeness, and something of tact, as indeed
most women do, and shaped her answer to conceal her ignorance,
and at the same time flatter her auditor. This so inflated
his vanity, that he informed her confidentially that he was just
then busily engaged in the collection of his old letters, for nobody
knew, he said, what publicity they might come to, from
his distinguished position as a literary man.

In his apprehensions and cautious endeavors the lady concurred,
and he resolved at once to put in the “Ladies' Garland
an advertisement, requesting all persons who might have
any letters or other writings of his, to return them to the address
of P. Joel Springer, forthwith. High above the praises
of his simple listener, he heard sounding the blessed award of
the future time, and the echoes of his unrequited sorrows went
moaning through the farther parts of the world.

Who of us are much wiser? for on bases as unsubstantial
have we not at one time or another rested some gorgeous fabric
whose turrets were to darken among the stars. Time soon
enough strips the future of its fantastic beauty, drives aside
the softening mists, and reveals to us the hard and sharp realities
of things.

But the guests were generally merry, and they did ample
justice to the viands before them, partly because they had excellent
appetites, and partly in answer to the urgent entreaties
of Ellen, though she constantly depreciated her culinary skill,
and reiterated again and again that she had nothing very inviting.
But her praises were on every tongue, and her hands
were more than busy with the much service required of them,
which nevertheless added to her happiness; and as she glided
up and down the long table, dispensing the tea and coffee, snuffing
the candles, or urging the most bashful to be served with a
little of this or that, just to please her, she was the very personification
of old-fashioned country hospitality.

Every one liked Ellen, for she was one of those who always
forget themselves when there is any thing to remember for
others.

At length, one of the young men who had been in communication
with the bottles, mentioned as lying cool among the ivy
during the afternoon, protested that he would bring a rail to
serve as a pry, unless his companions desisted from further eating
of their own free will.

“That is right, Bill,” called out one kindred in bluntness and
coarseness, “here is a fellow wants choking off.”

“I own up to that,” said another, “I have eaten about a
bushel, I guess.”

“If I had a dollar for every mouthful you have eaten,” said
one, “I wouldn't thank nobody for being kin to me.”

“Well,” answered the person thus addressed, “if I have busted
a couple of buttons off my vest, I don't think you are a fellow
that will be likely to let much bread mould.”

“La, how you young men do run on,” interposed Ellen,
neither surprised nor offended at the coarse freedom of the
jests; and amid obstreperous laughter the party arose, and
many of the young men resorted again to the whiskey bottles,
for the sake of keeping up their spirits, as they said, after
which, with lighted cigars in their mouths, they locked arms
with the ladies, and talked sentiment in the moonlight as they
strolled, in separate pairs, preparatory to assembling in the garret
for the usual order of exercises prescribed for such occasions.

Meantime the candles were mostly carried thither by certain
forlorn maidens, who declared themselves afraid of the
night air, and from the open windows rung out old hymns,
which, if not altogether in keeping with the general feeling and
conduct of the occasion, constituted the only musical resources
of the party, and afforded as much enjoyment perhaps as the
rarest songs to beauties flecked with diamonds, when met for
gayety or for display in marble halls.

Hidden by shadows, and sitting with folded arms on a topmost
fence-rail, P. Joel Springer listened alone to the dirge-like
sighing of the wind, and the dismal hootings of the owl.
And our good hostess, the while, could be prevailed on neither
to eat nor sleep, even though her excellent spouse assured her
that Helph was safe enough, and that she knew right well how
often he had spent the night from home in his young days,
without meeting any accident or misfortune; but the dear old
lady refused to be comforted; and every unusual noise, to her
fancy, was somebody bringing Helph home dead. Mr. Wetherbe
had, the previous autumn, “missed a land” in the sowing
of his wheat field, and that, she had always heard say, was a
sure sign of death.

In couples, already engaged for the first play, the strollers
came in at last, and there was a tempest of laughter and frolic,
which fairly shook the house. The customs which prevailed,

even a dozen years ago, in Clovernook and other rural neighborhoods
of the west, are now obsolete; but I do not in any degree
overdraw the manners of the period in which this quilting
occurred at Mrs. Wetherbe's. Some embarrassment followed
the assembling in the garret under the blaze of so many candles,
but when it was whispered that Jo Allen, the most genial
and true-hearted of them all, had just been taken home on
horseback, and that Abner Gibbs, for his better security, had
ridden behind him, there were renewed peals of laughter, and
no one seemed to doubt that such indulgence and misfortune
were a legitimate subject of merriment. Others, it was more
privately suggested, had also taken a drop too much, and would
not be in condition to see the girls “safe home” that night.

“Come,” said Ellen, as she entered the room, last of all, having
been detained after the fulfilment of her other duties by
kindly endeavoring to induce Jo Allen to drink some new milk,
as an antidote to the Monongahela, “come, why don't some of
you start a play?” But all protested they didn't know a single
thing, and insisted that Ellen should herself lead the
amusements.

Hunting the Key being proposed, the whole party was formed
into a circle, with hands joined to hands, and directed to move
rapidly round and round, during which process, a key was attached
to the coat of some unsuspecting individual, who was
then selected to find it, being informed that it was in the keeping
of one of the party. The circle resumed its gyrations, and
the search commenced by examining pockets and forcing apart
interlocked hands, a procedure relished infinitely—all except the
inquirer after the key well knowing where it might be found.

Soon all diffidence vanished, and

rung across the meadows, and was followed by other rude
rhymes, sung as accompaniments to the playing.
was received with every evidence of admiration—an exchange
of kisses being required, of course. Then came the Selling of
Pawns, and the Paying of Penalties, with requisitions no less
agreeable to all parties.
was enacted by each beau's choosing a partner, and promenading
“to the tune of a slight flirtation.” And Blind Man's Buff,
and Hold Fast all I Give You, and half a dozen other winter
evening's entertainments, then regarded as not undeserving the
best skill of country gentlemen and ladies, though now for the
most part resigned everywhere to the younger boys and girls,
were played with the most genuine enjoyment.

The night wore on to the largest hours, and for a concluding
sport was proposed Love and War. In the centre of the room,
two chairs were placed, some three feet apart, over which a
quilt was carefully spread, so as seemingly to form a divan, and
when a lady was seated on each chair, the gentlemen withdrew to
the lower apartments, to be separately suffered to enter again
when all should be in order. A rap on the door announced an
applicant for admission, who was immediately conducted by
the master of ceremonies to the treacherous divan, and presented
to the ladies, being asked at the same time whether he
preferred love or war? and, no matter which was his choice,
he was requested to sit between the two, when they rose, and
by so doing, caused their innocent admirer to be precipitated
to the floor—a denouement which was sure to be followed by
the most boisterous applause.

“I guess,” said Mehitable, whispering in a congratulatory
way to Elizabeth, “that Hetty will have to get home the best
way she can: I haven't seen anybody ask her for her company.”
But just then there was a little bustle at the door, and a murmur
of congratulations and regrets, over which was heard the
exclamation, “Just in time to see the cat die!” Mehitable
raised herself on tiptoe, and discovered that the doctor had at
length arrived. A moment afterwards he stood beside Hetty,
who was blushing and smiling with the most unfeigned satisfaction;

but in answer to some whispered words of his she
shook her head, a little sadly, as it seemed, and the doctor's
brow darkened with a frown. Of this, Mr. P. Joel Springer
was not unobservant, and coming forward, reluctantly, as he
said, relinquished the pleasure he had expected—concluding his
poetical and gallant speech with, “Adieu, fair maiden, alone I
take my solitary way, communing with the stars.”

Hetty and the doctor were the next to go, and then came a
general breaking up; horses were saddled, and sleepy colts,
leaving the places they had warmed in the grass, followed slowly
the gallants, who walked beside the ladies as they rode. There
were some, too, who took their way across the fields, and others
through the dusty highway, all mated as pleased them, except
Mehitable and Elizabeth, who were both mounted on one horse,
comforting each other with assurances that the young men were
very great fools.

And so, in separate pairs, they wended their ways homeward,
each gentlemen with the slippers of his lady-love in his pocket,
and her mammoth comb in his hat.