al. Only a
short time ago this room would have been crowded with teamsters of the
broad-tired Pennsylvania wagons, drawn by six or eight horses."

Again the appetizing aroma from the kitchen turned the current of his
reflections into its original channel, for he concluded with: "An
excellent dinner is in progress, if my diagnosis of these penetrating
fragrances be correct."

And it was soon demonstrated that the manager's discernment was not in
error. There was not only abundance but quality, and the landlord's
daughter waited on the guests, thereby subjecting herself to the very
open advances of the Celtic Adonis. The large table was laden with
heavy crockery, old-fashioned and quaint; an enormous rotary castor
occupied the center of the table, while the forks and spoons were--an
unusual circumstance!--of silver.

When the company had seated themselves around the board the waitress
brought in a sucking pig, done to a turn, well stuffed, and with an
apple in its mouth. The manager heaved a sigh.

"The lovely little monster," said Kate, admiringly.

"Monster!" cried Susan. "Say cherub!"

"So young and tender for such a fate!" exclaimed Hawkes, the
melancholy individual, with knife and fork held in mid-air.

"But worthy of the bearer of the dish!" remarked Adonis, so pointedly
that the landlord's daughter, overwhelmed with confusion, nearly
dropped the platter, miniature porker and all. Whereupon Kate cast an
angry glance at the offender whom "she could not abide," yet regarded
in a certain proprietary way, and Adonis henceforth became less open
in his advances.

Those other aromas which the manager had mentally classified took form
and substance and were arranged in tempting variety around the
appetizing and well-browned suckling. There were boiled and baked
hams, speckled with cloves, plates of doughnuts and pound cake, beet
root and apple sauce. Before each of the guests stood a foaming mug
of home-brewed ale that carried with it a palpable taste of the hops.

"There is nothing of the stage repast about this," commented the
manager.

To which Kate, having often partaken of the conventional banquet of
the theater, waved her hand in a serio-comic manner toward the _piece
de resistance_ and observed:

"Suppose, now, by some necromancy our young and tender friend here on
the platter should be changed to a cleverly fashioned block of wood,
painted in imitation of a roasted porker, with a wooden apple in his
m