ke of him by the title his
infirmity suggested.

Hunch Blair did odd jobs at the furnace store at Three-Sisters, a
village located at the foot of a spur of the Alleghany Mountains. Only
his father called Hunch by his Christian name. He was a mannish dwarf.
Somewhere he had learned to play the cornet.

These were the musicians at the Queen's ball, and lively music they
played.

"Move round there, you huckleberry-huckster, and keep some sort of time
to the music," Bill shouted at Mrs. Wright from Tihank.

She sold berries in their season and was a quaint character. Spurred by
the caller's sharp reprimand, she got ahead of the others, and left her
partner before it was time to "turn corners."

He was none other than the stalwart, handsome, dignified owner of the
Three-Sister furnaces, and known to all the iron trade as Colonel Jerry
Hornberger. He had honored the Queen's ball with his presence and was
dancing the first quadrille with Mrs. Wright.

"Seat your partners," Bill shouted presently, "and give Hunch a chance
to fill that extra lung he carries on his back."

The party was given in honor of Elizabeth McAnay, the Queen of the Block
of Blazes, who had become twenty-one that day.

Tall, strong, light-footed, and graceful, she was the best dancer in
Three-Sisters and eagerly sought as a partner at all the balls. Although
not pretty, her face was full of character. Her eyes and hair, which was
worn short, were black. Her walk was erect, and her manner regal. She
was always grave and dignified, yet could enter heartily into the spirit
of a jolly occasion. However, she never lost her womanly dignity as many
girls do at balls or parties in the country, by playing practical jokes
on the young men; and because she would not join in such tricks, one of
the girls had given her the nickname, "The Queen of the Block."

"Twenty-one dances, mind," said Bill, tuning his fiddle for the second
dance. "Your positions for number two. Huckleberries, you dance here
where I can tap you with the fiddle-bow."

Mrs. Wright, taking a place on the floor by the side of John
Gillfillan, the head clerk at the furnace store, turned up her nose at
Bill, and joined another set.

Snap! Blind Benner broke a fiddle string, and was so grieved that he
could not play that Bill delayed the dance until the string was again
tuned.

Elizabeth was dancing with her oldest brother Levi. Her partner in the
first quadrille had been her aged father, w