“Beaten in four games! Now, that’s what I call outrageous! Don’t you know, my dear fellow, that there are three persons in the world who should never be beaten—a guest, a woman, and a monarch?”
Carl laughed and chuckled, and beating the draught-board tambourine-like above his head in triumph, carried it off and put it away.
The whole party then arose to retire. Carl took the candle and showed his guests up into the loft and left them to repose.
“Now where will that child sleep, for we have got her room?” asked Frank, with concern, as soon as they were alone.
“Oh-h!” replied Captain Clifton, indifferently, “anywhere—on a pallet—perhaps, down stairs.”
“But the old man and the young one—”
“Oh-h!” again drawled Clifton, in a bored tone, “if you expect to meet with refinement among the mountain people, you will be disappointed.”
Long after the travellers had laid down to rest, they heard the sound of footsteps moving about in the room below. They moved quietly and cautiously, as if fearful of disturbing the guests; but, as I said before, all sounds, even the lowest, could be distinctly heard through that shell of a house.
On awaking the next morning, the young men found their own clothes well cleaned, dried, and pressed, ready for them to put on.
“Ah, ha!” said the sagacious Frank, “that is what the poor girl was at work at so late last night.”