d hardly have found in
their own history the origin of these ancient customs. Those must have
been sought much farther back than the coming of those first settlers
into the wilderness,--as far back, perhaps, as the oldest traditions of
the purest stock of the old English yeomanry from which these people
were sprung. For in their veins throbbed the same warm red blood,
which, having little to do with the tilling of the soil or the building
trade, had everything to do with the fighting of battles and the making
of homes. For in their strong simple hearts was the same love of country
that bore England's flag to victory, and the same love of the fireside
that made peace as welcome as conquest.

And as these old English fighters had danced with their sweethearts on
the greensward in the intervals between wars, so these fighters of the
wilderness now went on with the dance in the forest just as if there had
been no fierce conflict at hand. They might be called to fight to-morrow
and they would be ready, but they would dance to-day, just as their
forefathers had done. To go elsewhere than to the dance on the morning
selected for it was, therefore, not to be thought of by any young person
of the neighborhood. Ruth had asked David to take her, explaining that
William Pressley could not accompany her quite so early as she wished to
go. He had business which would detain him, she explained with a painful
blush. And then, when she had said this with a troubled look, she
flashed round on the boy, demanding to know why William should not do
whatever he thought best.

"William always has a good reason for everything he does, or doesn't do.
He is never neglectful of any duty. Never!" with her blue eyes, which
were usually like turquoises, flashing into sapphires. "He takes time to
think--time to be sure that he is right. He isn't forever rushing into
mistakes and being sorry, like you and me!"

In another moment she laughed and coaxed, patting his arm.

"Do be ready, David, dear, and wear your nicest clothes," she said, in
her sweetest way. "And no girl there will have a handsomer gallant than
mine, than my Knight of the Oracle, my--"

The boy teased but smiling ran away to do her bidding, as he always did.
He had no clothes besides the worn suit of homespun which he was then
wearing, except one other of buckskin, gayly fringed on the sleeves and
on the outer seam of the breeches. This had been his pride till of late.
But he now t