How they all enjoyed that supper! They were just like girls in a book, Miriam said. Everything seemed so different from ordinary occasions. Even the orange jelly tasted so much better than at other times, because of the orange baskets in which it was served. They sat at the table a long time, for both Mrs. Benton and her daughter encouraged their visitors to talk; and while they were eating their candy and nuts, they played the game of rhymes and "yes and no."
Then Miss Kitty sent them into the parlor with her mother, excusing herself and Winnie for a few moments. When they entered the parlor, they found Mrs. Benton with her silk socks in her hands, knitting as rapidly as she was talking. She was giving them an account of the old turkey gobbler that used to chase her when she was a little girl, and they were all laughing heartily.
This anecdote led to Miriam's giving an account of a goat which one of her aunt's friends had presented to her little boy, and which was the terror of the neighborhood.
"My aunt and I," said Miriam, "were making an afternoon visit at Mrs. Kincaid's, and, as it was warm and pleasant, we were invited into the yard to look at the flowers. My aunt was very enthusiastically admiring a fine Yucca which, for a wonder, was in bloom, when the goat was seen peering through a gap in the fence which divided the front from the back yard.
"Mrs. Kincaid immediately took to her heels, and I was about to follow, when Aunt Jennie said, 'Miriam, I am surprised that you should be afraid of a goat. Even if he were to come near you, you would only have to seize him by the horns; it is the easiest thing in the world to conquer a goat.'
"By this time Mrs. Kincaid was safe in the house, tapping loudly on the window, from which she was viewing the scene, for us to come in, and 'dancing crazy' (as the girls say about things), because we were still outside.
"My aunt was walking in a leisurely and dignified manner toward the house, holding her head a little higher than usual, and I was following very meekly for me—for I hate to be thought a coward—when the goat gave a sudden bound, broke another picket in the fence, and went straight toward her with his head down, and his bob tail switching.
"Well, Aunt Jennie did turn and face him, and she really did take the vicious little beast by the horns. But was he conquered? You wouldn't have thought so, had you been there; he just raised himself on his hind legs and shook himself loose. Aunt Jennie suddenly dropped her dignity, and flew, rather than ran, toward the house, the goat after her, and she just escaped him by Mrs. Kincaid's pulling her inside the door and slamming it shut.
"As for me, I went through the hole in the fence to the back yard, rushed pell-mell into the kitchen door, without stopping to knock, and dropped into the nearest chair, where I sat and laughed till the tears ran down my cheeks, to the astonishment of the kitchen girl and the washerwoman, who were enjoying a cup of tea.
"I was wicked enough to laugh afterward, for Aunt Jennie did not lecture on courage or dignity for a month after that, and I notice now that when we pass a livery stable she keeps a quiet but effective lookout for 'the horned monarch of the livery stable,' as I once heard him called."