"Yes. The moment the minister finishes the benediction Sunday afternoon, Squire Fellows breaks in, shouting that marriage is intended between Hezekiah and Mehitable. Of course there are blushes on Mehitable's face, while Hezekiah looks kinder sheepish." Again the ladies laughed. "Do all the ladies take snuff?" Miss Flucker asked the question. "Nearly all the old ladies carry their snuff-boxes in their pockets or work-bags. There's one lady, however, who does not--Aunt Hipsy Jenkins. Perhaps I ought to say she is well along in years, and that the town clerk never has cried her. She carries her nose as she pleases. She says if the Lord had intended it for a dust-hole, he would have put it on the other end up." A merry peal of laughter rang through the garden--so joyful that several ladies and gentlemen joined the group, to hear what the young man from the country was saying. "Her name," said Robert, by way of explanation, "is Hepsibah, but everybody calls her Hipsy." "Evidently," said Isaac Coffin, "she is a lady who is up to snuff." Again the company laughed. "You may be sure she never minces things, but speaks her mind, whether anybody likes it or not," Robert replied. "Are the gentlemen invited to the tea-parties?" John Coffin asked. "Not to the afternoon parties, neither are the young ladies; the old ladies like to be by themselves while sipping their tea. Perhaps they think it would not be dignified on the part of the gentlemen to devote the afternoons to gossip," Robert replied. "Do not the young ladies meet?" Miss Shrimpton asked. "Not as do our mothers, but they have their own good times,--their quilting parties. In the country every girl as soon as she can sew begins to make patchwork. When they get enough for a quilt, they invite their acquaintances to the quilting, and spend the afternoon in talking about--well, I can't exactly say what they do talk about. Perhaps you ladies can tell better than I." The ladies smiled at his pleasant way of indicating what was uppermost in the thoughts of young maidens on such delightful occasions. "Do not the gentlemen participate in some way?" Miss Quincy inquired. "Oh yes; we join them in the evening, after they are through with the quilting, and try to make things lively. We play blindman's-buff, hide the handkerchief, roast beef behind your back, come Philander, stage-coach, and other games, and have a jolly time. The ladies serve us with bread and butter, doughnuts, cookies, tarts, gingerbread, and tea. We guess riddles and tell ghost stories." "How delightful!" Miss Newville exclaimed.