The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lodusky, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Title: Lodusky

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Release Date: November 4, 2007 [EBook #23327]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by David Widger

LODUSKY

By Frances Hodgson Burnett

Copyright, 1877

They were rather an incongruous element amid the festivities, but
they bore themselves very well, notwithstanding, and seemed to be
sufficiently interested. The elder of the two--a tall, slender,
middle-aged woman, with a somewhat severe, though delicate face--sat
quietly apart, looking on at the rough dances and games with a keen
relish of their primitive uncouthness; but the younger, a slight, alert
creature, moved here and there, her large, changeable eyes looking
larger through their glow of excitement.

"Thet gal thar," drawled a tall mountaineer who supported himself
against the chimney and spat with placid regularity into the fire. "They
tell me thet gal thar hes writ things as hes been in print. They say
she's powerful smart--arns her livin' by it. 'T least thet's what Jake
Harney says, 'n they's a-boardin' at Harney's. The old woman's some of
her kin, 'n' goes 'long with her when she travels 'round."

There was one fiddler at work sawing industriously at one tune which did
good service throughout the entertainment; there was a little furious
and erratic reel-dancing, and much loud laughter, and good-natured, even
if somewhat personal, jest. The room was one of two which formed the
house; the walls were of log; the lights the cheery yellow flare of
great pine-knots flung one after the other upon the embers.

"I am glad I thought of North Carolina," Rebecca Noble said to herself.
"There is a strong hint of Rembrandt in this,--the bright yellow light,
the uncouth figures. Ah! who is that?"

A short time after, she made her way through the crowd to her relative's
corner among the shadows. She looked eager and excited, and spoke in a
quick, breathless fashion.

"I want to show you something, if you have not already seen it," she
said. "There is in this room, Aunt Miriam, the most wonderf