HE night for the first Dancing Assembly had come, and old Peter, John Thomas’s father and the janitor of the Assembly room, had done more work in the last week than in all the whole five months between the two seasons of social gayety. In an hour now it would be time for the guests to arrive, and, arrayed in his best coat and knee-breeches, and with nothing further to do, Peter sat on a three-legged stool at one end of the hall, surveying his work with evident satisfaction.

Presently there was the sound of several pairs of feet on the flight of stairs that led up to the Assembly rooms, and Peter, craning his neck, tried to make out who it might be without taking the trouble to get up, for his old knees were very stiff from the unwonted exertions of the week.

Who it might be was quickly determined, for in a flash there stood before him what seemed to him a veritable crowd of children, though in point of fact there were only the two Marberrys, Hazel, Starlight, and Flutters.

“What you chilluns doin’ heah? Dis heah ain’t no place fur chilluns. You better go right ‘long home agin, I reckon.”

Peter tried to speak gruffly, but they were not in the least intimidated, knowing that it was all assumed.

“Peter, we have a great favor to ask of you,”’ said Hazel, who seemed to be the ringleader of the little party.

“‘Tain’t no sort o’ use, Miss Hazel; can’t ‘low it no how;” for Peter knew well enough what the favor was; “if I let you chilluns into dat gall’ry, you’ll keep up such a snickerin’ and gigglin’, you’ll ‘sturb the whole Assembly. No, Miss Hazel; can’t t’ink of it; can’t ‘low it no how.”

“Peter,” said Hazel, looking at him very searchingly, “are you going to let anybody in there?”

“Not a soul, Miss Hazel—dat is, not a soul ‘ceptin’ my John Thomas.”

“Ah! I thought so,” said Hazel, exultingly; “and it isn’t fair, Peter, to do for Thomas what you won’t do for us. We’ve come all the way into town just to see the dancing, ‘cause mother said she was sure there wouldn’t be any objection to our peeping through the gallery railing.”

“Did she say dat, sure ‘nuff, Miss Hazel?” And Peter put his head on one side, and looked at Hazel in a very suspicious manner.

“Yes, she did,” said Tilly Marberry, coming to the rescue; “I heard her myself; and, Peter, we’ll promise not to snicker.”

“Nor giggle, either,” said Tilly’s other self.

“Which of you is which?” said Peter, slowly looking at the twins with knitted eyebrows.

“Oh, Peter, please don’t stop to bother ‘bout that now,” pleaded Hazel, impatient of any digression from the main point; “but you will let us in, won’t you?” whereupon the other children chimed in with such imploring entreaties that the old janitor relented, and, getting on to his feet with an evident twinge in his rheumatic knees, felt in his coat-tail pocket for the coveted gallery keys. The good deed had its reward then and there, in the beaming and grateful faces of the troupe of little beggars.

The gallery in question was a sort of balcony, projecting from the wall at one end of the hall, midway between floor and ceiling, and to which access was had by a steep little spiral stairway. This gallery was intended for the musicians only; but between its gilded, bulging front and the part of the platform on which they sat was a space where half a dozen children might be comfortably accommodated. More than once, when some reception or dance was in progress, Hazel, with a few chosen friends in her train, had begged her way into this most desirable retreat, and that was why Peter knew “what was up” the moment he saw her.

When they entered the little gallery, they found John Thomas there before them, complacently installed in the most desirable place; but they were far too thankful to have gotten in at all to grudge him his privileged position.

It was a funny sight to see the little company established in a row behind the heavy gilded stucco work, which completely concealed them, yet offered such convenient little loop-holes and crannies, from which everything going on on the floor below could be plainly viewed. To be sure, the arrangement of the platform obliged them all to sit tailor fashion—rather a constrained position for those unaccustomed to it—but what did it matter about one’s legs and back when one’s eyes were to be feasted with lovely ladies and gallant gentlemen and the music they were to dance to would be ringing in one’s ears.

“Doesn’t the hall look lovely?” said Hazel, when at last she had adjusted her lower extremities as comfortably as circumstances would admit.

“Lovely!” answered the Marberrys, each with a sigh of deep appreciation, for it had not been an easy thing for them to gain permission to accompany Hazel, and this was to be their first introduction to the glories of a dancing assembly.

“How everything shines!” said Flutters, quite lost in admiration of the glittering brass sconces, with their bevelled mirrors and beautiful red candles, and wondering greatly how any floor could ever be brought to such a high state of polish.

“‘Course it shines,” said John Thomas. “It ought to shine. My father hasn’t been reachin’ and rubbin’, and kneelin’ and polishin’ fur free weeks fur nuffin, I reckon.”

“Did you help him?” asked Flutters, with admiration.



0149

“No, sah, I did not. I hasn’t no time for polishin’. I assists in Colonel Hamilton’s law office,” and John Thomas proudly drew himself up till his woolly head grazed the ridge of the gallery rail above him.

“What,” said Starlight’, “are you the boy in Colonel Hamilton’s office?”

“I assists Colonel Hamilton,” John Thomas repeated, not being willing to bring himself down to Starlight’s offensive way of putting things.

“Yes, I’ve heard about you!’ said Starlight, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“W’at you heard, I’d like to know!”

“John Thomas,” came a voice from below, “don’t let me hear anoder word from you dis ebenin’, else home you go to mammy right smart, I can tell you, and de oder chiliuns long wid you too.” Old Peter had shambled out to the middle of the floor to take one more satisfactory view of things in general, and just in time to hear John Thomas’s excited tones. His words had the desired effect; the little gallery instantly relapsed into absolute silence, the six children fairly holding their breath for fear of the threatened banishment. People were beginning to come now. A few gentlemen were already on the floor, and the musicians, who had taken their places on the gallery platform, were drawing instruments, which would look funny enough to-day, from the depths of clumsy green baize bags, and beginning to “tune up.”

“Tell me w’at you heard?” demanded John Thomas of Starlight, as soon as he dared to speak again.

“Oh, John Thomas, please don’t!” begged Milly Marberry, putting her little hand most beseechingly on his sleeve; “we’ve never been to an Assembly before. We’d cry our eyes out if your father sent us home.”

John Thomas yielded to this entreaty, but sullenly, as though he meant to have it out with Starlight some day or other. Any slur upon his character was just one thing that that young gentleman was determined not to endure, and the sooner Job Starlight and the rest of the world came to that wise conclusion, why, so much the better for everybody concerned—at least, so thought john Thomas.

It was a pity that at the commencement of the Assembly Hazel, Milly, and Tilly could not have been in two places at once, for while only an occasional couple strolled on to the dancing floor, the dressing-rooms were crowded. There would have been a peculiar pleasure for those little lovers of finery to see the pretty toilets gradually emerge from the ............