en Jim and Camilla were sitting out the second dance he told her
about Arthur, the Englishman, who sat in a corner, shy and
uncomfortable. Camilla became interested at once, and when he brought
Arthur over and introduced him, Camilla's friendly smile set him at his
ease. Then Jim generously vacated his seat and went to find Nellie
Slater.

"Select your partners for a square dance!" big John, the caller-off
announced, when the floor was cleared. This was the dance that Mr. and
Mrs. Slater would have to dance. It was in vain that Mrs. Slater
whispered that she had not danced for years, that she was a Methodist
bred and born. That did not matter. Her son Peter declared that his
mother could dance beautifully, jigs and hornpipes and things like
that. He had often seen her at it when she was down in the milkhouse
alone.

Mrs. Slater whispered dreadful threats; but her son Peter insisted, and
when big John's voice rang out "Honors all," "Corners the same," Mrs.
Slater yielded to the tide of public opinion.

Puffing and blowing she got through the "First four right and left,"
"Right and left back and ladies' chain"; but when it came to "Right
hand to partner" and "Grand right and left," it was good-bye to mother!
Peter dashed into the set to put his mother right, but mother was
always pointing the wrong way. "Swing the feller that stole the sheep,"
big John sang to the music; "Dance to the one that drawed it home,"
"Whoop 'er up there, you Bud," "Salute the one that et the beef" and
"Swing the dog, that gnawed the bone." "First couple lead to the
right," and mother and father went forward again and "Balance all!"
Tonald McKenzie was opposite mother; Tonald McKenzie did
steps--Highland fling steps they were. Tonald was a Crofter from the
hills, and had a secret still of his own which made him a sort of
uncrowned king among the Crofters. It was a tight race for popularity
between mother and Tonald in that set, and when the two stars met face
to face in the "Balance all!" Tonald surpassed all former efforts. He
cracked his heels together, he snapped his fingers; he threaded the
needle; he wrung the dishcloth--oh you should have seen Tonald!

Then big John clapped his hands together, and the first figure was over.

In the second figure for which the violins played "My Love Is but a
Lassie Yet," Mrs. Slater's memory began to revive, and the dust of
twenty years fell from her dancing experience. She went down the centre
and ba