Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/23

Rh to behold. A sapper celebrated the last evening; and even the doleful Lavinia, touched by such kindness, emerged from her slough of despond and electrified the ball by dancing a jig with great spirit and grace.

Devoted beings were up at dawn to share the early breakfast, lug trunks, fly up and down with last messages, cheer heartily as the carriage drove off, and then adjourn en masse to the station there to shake hands all round once more, and wave and wring handkerchiefs as the train at last bore the jocund Mat and the resigned Lavinia toward the trysting-place and Amanda.

All along the route, more friends kept bursting into the cars as they stopped at different places, more gifts, more hand-shakes and kisses, more good wishes and kind prophecies, till at last in a chaos of smiles, tears, smelling-bottles, luncheon, cloaks, books, and foot-warmers, the travellers left the last friendly face behind and steamed away to New York.

"How de-licious this is!" cried the untravelled Matilda, as they stepped upon the deck of the "Lafayette," and she sniffed the shippy fragrance that caused Lavinia to gasp and answer darkly,—