trance, always dressed in lavender with a great
deal of black lace, her important watch chain
lying on her bosom. She wore her hair on
the top of her head, built up in a black tower,
with red coral combs. When she smiled, she
showed two rows of strong, crooked yellow
teeth. She taught the little children herself,
and her husband, the harpist, taught the older
ones.

Often the mothers brought their fancy-work
and sat on the shady side of the tent during
the lesson. The popcorn man wheeled his glass
wagon under the big cottonwood by the door,
and lounged in the sun, sure of a good trade
when the dancing was over. Mr. Jensen, the
Danish laundryman, used to bring a chair
from his porch and sit out in the grass plot.
Some ragged little boys from the depot sold
pop and iced lemonade under a white um-
brella at the corner, and made faces at the
spruce youngsters who came to dance. That
vacant lot soon became the most cheerful
place in town. Even on the hottest afternoons
the cottonwoods made a rustling shade, and
the air smelled of popcorn and melted butter,
and Bouncing Bets wilting in the sun. Those
hardy flowers had run away from the laundry-

[[222]]

p221 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p222w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p223

v?