was up, and three more boys took their turn. After many such trials
Posy's big cousin (an old hand, with a big mouth) brought up a little
apple, another fellow caught an apple by its stalk, and Bob (good at a
dive), after plunging his face to the bottom of the tub, and holding his
apple steady between his nose and chin, rose with it in his teeth,
triumphant but dripping.

After this had gone on for some time with varying success, the wet boys
were sent off to change their clothes, and the girls' turn came. Many
more apples were put into the tubs, and each girl in turn was told to
hold a fork as high as she could in her right hand over the tub, and
drop it on the apples. If she could spear one, she might choose her
valentine. The boys joined in this also, but hardly so many apples were
speared as had been caught in the boys' teeth, and the victors in the
tub fishery set up a shout of triumph.

Next boys and girls had their hands tied behind them, and took turns to
run up to the apple on the stick suspended by a string. This string had
been twisted by the master of the revels, and the stick turned round
rapidly. The fun was to jump up, and with their teeth to seize the
apple. If they missed (which, of course, they did nearly every time),
the bag of sand swung round and hit them on the face, to the amusement
of the company.

Meantime there were many nuts roasting on the hearth, each named for a
boy or girl. If one bearing a boy's name swelled up and popped away, his
lady-love would lose him; if it flared up and blazed, he was thinking
about her tenderly. If two nuts named for two lovers blazed at once,
they would soon be a happy couple.

Some of the older boys and girls of the party were then blindfolded, and
hand in hand were conducted to the gate of the walled kitchen-garden,
where they were told to find their way into the cabbage patch, where
each was to pull up a cabbage stump. When they returned with their
prizes to the house, great fun and much dirt were the result. Posy's
eldest cousin had brought in a big crooked cabbage stalk, with plenty of
mould hanging to its roots: he was to marry a tall, stout, misshapen
wife with a large fortune. Miss Clara, the young lady of the house,
brought in a tall and slender stalk, with little soil adhering to it; so
by-and-by, as some one said, she would marry a tall, straight, penniless
bridegroom.

Then the table with the three crocks was brought into the middle of the
room.