The floor was occupied by dancers. Mrs. Jose, her broad, rosy face all smiles, looked on. But the number of those who figured was inconsiderable. The girls were shy, shyer still were the lads; and only a few of the bolder spirits and the most confident in their legs began to dance. But by degrees, under the influence of the music, of the persuasion of the hostess, of the desire to make the most of so rare an opportunity, shyness yielded, and the number of footers on the floor increased. The light, according to our modern notions, was not brilliant, but the twilight of tallow candles and horn lanterns sufficed, where hearts were light and blood was aflame. The barn had a large door under a pent-house roof for the reception of sheaves to be tossed in from a laden wagon, to be piled at one end and thrashed on the floor in the middle. It was lime-ashed at the extremities, but the floor, on which the flails played, was of oak boards, beaten hard and smooth. But the barn was provided as well with slits unglazed, through which light and air by day entered the barn when the great doors were shut, and through which now flowed the light and the sounds from within. To one of these Jack drew near. He could look through and observe the fun without himself being noticed. This was the more certain as the loophole he selected was behind the barn door, thrown back to allow those who were hot to issue forth and cool themselves, and to enable the dust tossed up from the floor to be carried out by the draught and dissipated. Lest an excess of chill winter air should enter, only one of the valves was opened. At any moment, if necessary, it might be shut. But the air, if humid, was not frosty, and none complained of cold. Concealed behind the door, Jack peered into the interior, leaning his elbows on the ledge that projected from the slit. He felt no desire to be within. It would not have been seemly for him to have taken a part in the merrymaking so soon after losing his father, and the tone of his spirits was not in keeping with a festival. He knew by sight most of the girls present, but none of them interested him particularly, though several had pleasant and even pretty faces. The soft light from above toned down any slight roughnesses or irregularities there might be in complexion and feature; and where the faces were kindled with pleasure, the eyes sparkled, and the colour mounted, none could be plain, and a taste must be fastidious that does not see beauty in the fresh and well-formed faces of the West. As to the young men, they were cheery, perhaps a little noisy in their mirth, and only such were clumsy as had laboured at the plough in deep, tenacious clay.