Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/40

 OLD NINETY-NINE'S CAVE but to-day his table groaned under its weight of good things. Such deliciously sweet white bread and butter, steaming roast chickens, cranberries; and with appetites whetted by their ride over the hills, the hungry way- farers did ample justice to everything. Bessie's sweet ways won the love of all, and when John told that, but for her, his heart many times would have failed, how she had lost everything and used all her influence to prevent his being forced into the Confederate service, their glowing eyes expressed the wel- come addition she was. The children were duly admired and all points of resemblance settled. John De Vere's mother positively detested negroes, regarding them as all alike, and as a race of filthy, lying, lazy thieves. This condition, of course, was due to the system of slavery, but Reuben and Margaret's devotion was regarded by her as a special dispensation of Providence and her heart went out to them. Anxious to be up and doing, John De Vere made arrangements to begin at once in his 24