water in buckets, towels, basins, pin cushions, combs and brushes, face
powder, even needles and thread. Thence one emerged after half an hour
quite fresh--to dance on and on, till the fiddlers played a fast finale,
and went to their supper. Then came an interval of talk and laughing,
of making new friends or stabbing delicately old enemies. Also and
further much primping in the dressing-room. Dancing steadily through a
temperature of 98 in the shade plays hob with some sorts of prettiness.
But as dew fell and lighted lanterns went up about the arbor and
throughout the grove, supper was very welcome. There was hot coffee for
everybody, likewise milk, likewise lemonade, with buttered biscuit,
chicken, ham, and barbecue. Chicken-loaf was particularly good for such
uses. To make it, several plump, tender, full-grown pullets were
simmered in water to barely cover them, with a few pepper corns, half a
dozen cloves, and a blade of mace, until very, very tender. Then the
meat was picked from the bones, cut up while still hot, packed down in
something deep, seasoning it to taste with salt, as it was packed, and
dusting in more pepper if needed, then the liquor which had been kept at
a brisk boil was poured over, and left to cool. No bother about skimming
off fat--we liked our loaf rich as well as high-flavored. It came out a
fine mottled solid that could be sliced thin, and eaten delicately
between the halves of a buttered biscuit. Sandwiches were known--but
only in books. Which was well--they would have dried out so badly, for
this was before the era of wax paper. Since everything was packed in the
baskets whole, there was much work for mothers and Mammies at the
unpacking and table-setting.

Tarts, especially if filled with cheesecake or jelly custard, held high
place among the sweets. Especially with the men, young and old. One, a
manager, who had been here, there, everywhere, since eight o'clock in
the morning, asked Mammy at suppertime to: "Please save him one more
dozen of them little pies." In truth the little pies made no more than a
mouthful for noble appetites. Pies, full-grown, did not go begging--and
were seldom cut in less than quarters. Frosted cake--which the lads
denominated "white-washed," was commonly saved over for the supper
baskets. It kept moist, whereas without the frosting a long summer day
might make it hard.

After the supper elderly men drove home--unless they had daughters among
the dancers without