Rooms were aired, beds made and bright little wood-fires kindled. And an exquisite early supper was in progress.
Mammy received her mistress and mistress’s friends with a mixture of deference and dignity in her manners that was quite impressive.
And her joy over the fine growth and beauty of her nurseling, little Leonard, was natural and delightful.
The meeting also between Pina and Leo and their parents was very pleasant to see.
Our party had reached Cedarwood at the most beautiful hour of sunset.
General Lyon and Anna, who saw the place now for the first time and under its fairest aspect, were delighted with the cottage and its surroundings.
It was not an imposing and venerable mansion, overshadowed by mountains and forests, like Old Lyon Hall, but it was a pretty, wildwood home, fresh, bright, fair, and youthful. And Anna was in ecstasies over it.
But the sparkling shower-gems that glittered in the rays of the setting sun, from every leaf and flower and blade of grass, while they added so much to the beauty of the scene, made it a little too damp for health.
So Drusilla pressed her friends to go into the house, and General Lyon seconded her motion, and drove them in before him.
“This is all very pretty, my dears,” he said, “but we don’t want to begin our voyage with bad colds.”