stood on the sideboard in
the dining room, and the silver ice bowl was formally filled before
every meal by Dabney. The mint glass was kept fresh and fragrant but
apparently father had forgotten entirely about all three. He ate twice
as much as I had ever seen him consume and the worn lines in his face
were slowly filling out into a delicious joviality. Mr. Hicks, the
little tailor who had always clothed him, had little by little made over
the outer man with new garments as the old ones grew restrictive, and
Mother Spurlock had carried his entire discarded wardrobe, garment at a
time, down to the Settlement for the clothing of some of her most needy
friends.

But the most reborn person I had ever seen was Dabney. The little black
man had lived so long under the shadow of father's moroseness that when
the pressure was lifted from his bent black shoulders he rebounded to an
amazing extent. His reaction took the form of gala attire in which
Nickols encouraged him to the extent of silk hosiery of the most
delicate shades from his own wardrobe, with ties to match, not to
mention his own last year's Panama hat, pressed over into the extreme of
the prevailing style for youthful masculine head adornment. Also Nickols
bestowed upon him a very up-to-date Palm Beach suit, purchased at the
Hicks shop, and on his first appearance in the kitchen for his wife's
inspection I was present.

"Go take them clothes off, nigger, and put 'em along of my black silk
shroud in the bottom drawer of the chist," she commanded, as she put her
hands on her sixty-inch waist and stood before him with arms akimbo.
"Folks is got no business to dress in life so fine that they shames they
burying clothes."

"Shoo fly, I'm jest going to Washington, not to Heaven, in this here
rig. When I git into Heaven it'll be 'cause I'm hiding behind that
black silk skirt of your shroud, honey, if I'm as naked as borned," was
the admiring, wily and also wholly sincere answer to Mammy's fling at
the gorgeous raiment.

And while the Poplars teemed with wedding plans Nickols kept the whole
village steamed up to be in readiness for the visit of Mr. Jeffries,
which was dated for just a week before the wedding, and the village
festival at the opening of the new school was to be the most important
ceremonial of the whole visit. Father was to give him a dinner at which
all of the Solons of the Harpeth Valley were to be present, and a ball
at the Country Club was being plann