"Except Todd Stewart, Junior," the owner of the name, who had just come in, declared. "There is to be a birthday party and an old settlers' meeting, and maybe a French duel or two before midnight. I remember when I was the only kid in the Grass River Valley. There were others at first, but I always thought the grasshoppers or Darley Champers ate 'em. And Jo is the first white girl baby born in captivity here. We'll lead the opening of this ball or shoot up the ranch. You can have Jo for the last dance, Thaine, my son, but me first." "Oh, that's fine," Jo declared as Thaine was about to protest. "Serves you right for spoiling my decorations. But, Thaine, I claim you for the in-betweens and the last. Let's take one more look at the refreshments--that Gimpke girl may have them all in a mess by this time." There was a rush for the kitchen, where Leigh Shirley was already showing Rosie how to keep the table of dishes in order. Meanwhile, Asher Aydelot had gone out to the seat Thaine had put up under the honeysuckle trellis. "It is early for the crowd, Virgie. Come here and watch Boanerges Peeperville tuning up," Asher Aydelot said as Virginia stood on the veranda a little later. She came out to the seat under a bower of sweet white honeysuckle and sat down beside her husband. "The same Bo Peep of the old Virginia days, only he was a half-grown boy then," she said, watching the Negro bending above his violin. "How faithfully he has served Dr. Carey all these years. He's past forty now. Asher, we are all getting along." "With a boy nineteen tonight, how can it be otherwise?" Asher replied. "But when the Careyville crowd gets here I'm going to ask you for a dance, anyhow, Miss Thaine." Virginia stood in the moonlight and looked out over the prairie slumbering in a silver-broidered robe of evening mist. "How fast the years have gone. Do you remember the night in the old Thaine home in Virginia when you were our guest--too sick to dance?" she asked. Asher caught her arm and drew her to the seat beside him. "I remember the jessamine vines and the arbor at the end of the rose garden." "We are not old until we forget our own romance days," Virginia said. "You were my hero that night. You are my hero still." "Even with a son as old now as I was that night? The real romance of the prairie, you've said it often, Virgie, is Thaine Aydelot's romance. There's little chance for the rest of us." The coming of the guests just then called the host and hostess to the parlor, and the evening's festivities began.