t began
in an orderly way, every Madigan in her turn playing both parts of
victim and cartoonist. But it degenerated into an open and shameless
mimicry of Aunt Anne, of Francis Madigan, of the school-master, Mrs.
Ramrod, the Misses Blind-Staggers, Professor Trask, Dr. Murchison, Wong,
Indian Jim, and, finally, each of the other's tenderest folly--till a
living caricature too true or too cutting precipitated an appeal to
arms, and the Lighthouse, which was always in the way, was tipped over
in the melee, and had to be thrown out of the window, there to burn
itself into darkness innocuously.

Old Mother Gibson was given by a full cast the night of the savior's
arrival. Though Jane Cody had been merciless, Jack, tempted beyond his
powers of resistance by the sounds of revelry upon the hill, was
stalking about in melancholy masquerade among its personnel. Bombey
Forrest, her delicate head looking like a surprised sunflower upon its
masculine stalk, had come in, and Crosby Pemberton, looking as much out
of place in his immaculate linen and small Tuxedo as either of these,
was joyous at being among Madigans again.

You might have heard--if you'd stood out on the piazza looking in, and
happened to have the key to the riddle--a hint in verse of every Madigan
escapade, of every Madigan failing, of all the Madigan jokes, on Old
Mother Gibson nights. You would have seen even Kate--young-lady Kate,
who had once substituted in a school--join in this mad revel, with an
appetite for fun that showed how much of a child she still was.

An impressionable young Irishman, who had come out upon the piazza to
smoke a cigar and think himself back into his usual poise after a day
full of new experiences, had his attention attracted by the strumming on
the piano; and glancing in through the open window, he saw a slender,
graceful girl, her dark head rising lightly from the sailor collar of a
pink gingham blouse. She was balancing lightly as she walked, keeping
time to the rhythm, and followed by a procession of children in single
file. (A belief in the efficacy of motion to stimulate one's power of
improvisation made Old Mother Gibson the liveliest of games.) And
arriving at the center of the stage, she delivered herself in a singsong
of the following:

"Old Mother Gibson, be on your best behavior,
Or you'll surely fail to satisfy the savior."

It didn't seem a very funny or apposite ditty to Miles Morgan, but, to
judge by its eff