g out of his shell (as is apt to be the case
with the rural bivalve) gets homesick and loses his sprightliness,
replied, with the pleasantest smile in the world, that the chicken she
had been helped to was too delicate to be given up even for the greater
rarity. But the word "shell-oysters" had been overheard; and there was a
perceptible crowding movement towards their newly discovered habitat, a
large soup-tureen.

Silas Peckham had meantime fallen upon another locality of these recent
mollusks. He said nothing, but helped himself freely, and made a sign to
Mrs. Peckham.

"Lorindy," he whispered, "shell-oysters"

And ladled them out to her largely, without betraying any emotion, just
as if they had been the natural inland or pickled article.

After the more solid portion of the banquet had been duly honored, the
cakes and sweet preparations of various kinds began to get their share of
attention. There were great cakes and little cakes, cakes with raisins
in them, cakes with currants, and cakes without either; there were brown
cakes and yellow cakes, frosted cakes, glazed cakes, hearts and rounds,
and jumbles, which playful youth slip over the forefinger before spoiling
their annular outline. There were mounds of blo'monje, of the arrowroot
variety,--that being undistinguishable from such as is made with Russia
isinglass. There were jellies, which had been shaking, all the time the
young folks were dancing in the next room, as if they were balancing to
partners. There were built-up fabrics, called Charlottes, caky
externally, pulpy within; there were also marangs, and likewise
custards,--some of the indolent-fluid sort, others firm, in which every
stroke of the teaspoon left a smooth, conchoidal surface like the
fracture of chalcedony, with here and there a little eye like what one
sees in cheeses. Nor was that most wonderful object of domestic art
called trifle wanting, with its charming confusion of cream and cake and
almonds and jam and jelly and wine and cinnamon and froth; nor yet the
marvellous floating-island,--name suggestive of all that is romantic in
the imaginations of youthful palates.

"It must have cost you a sight of work, to say nothin' of money, to get
all this beautiful confectionery made for the party," said Mrs. Crane to
Mrs. Sprowle.

"Well, it cost some consid'able labor, no doubt," said Mrs. Sprowle.
"Matilda and our girls and I made 'most all the cake with our own hands,
and we all