moccasins and a jaunty bear-skin
jacket, had walked five miles to borrow a white petticoat to wear to the
dance. Another travelled ten, by way of an ox-team, to obtain a pair of
open-work stockings from a friend who was asthmatic and could not go.
Even dresses were lent for the occasion; and during his ten years'
sojourn at the settlement the storekeeper had never reaped such a
harvest as he did on that day.

Toward night the air grew crisper and colder, as it had done on the day
before. The sledge-runners crunched over the snow, and there was a
little frosty tinkle to the bells, which woke every wood-track with its
cheery melody, floated down the ice-bound river, echoed across the lake
and along the well-trodden main road. The hall at the Forks where the
dance was to be held--a bare, unfinished apartment, built for the use
of, but not yet taken possession of by, the town--was decorated in the
most elaborate manner, but chiefly with small flags and strips of cloth
in red, white, and blue, as if for some patriotic occasion. A stuffed
eagle nestled in a bower of evergreen, holding a banner emblazoned with
the stars and stripes in his huge bill. The clock was encircled in a
wreath of paper roses, as was also the picture of Daniel Webster, which,
having an oval frame, caused the great statesman to look as if he were
masquerading for a May queen.

Barker arrived at the festive scene just in time to assist Mrs. Jones
and Drusy from their sleigh. Dancing had already commenced, though it
was not yet eight o'clock. And what a motley crowd it was which moved to
the lively measures of "Money Musk"! Several of the ladies as well as
the men were tripping the "light fantastic toe" in moccasins. Girls in
calico gowns wore wreaths of artificial flowers upon their heads.
Henrietta Blaisdell, a fat, shapeless girl with a freckled face, whose
father owned more pine timber than any other man in the county, wore
black silk, and was regarded with something like awe by the less
fortunate ones in calico and homespun. Drusy was handsomer than ever, in
a soft woollen gown of dull blue, with a red rose in the masses of her
black hair and another at her throat. The schoolmistress, a pretty
blonde, who was also a belle, wore white muslin, with a gay ribbon about
her waist. Nearly all the men wore red shirts, but the tie of their
cravats betokened careful study. Barker sported a gorgeous waistcoat,
ornamented with brilliant flowers of all the color