"Served by your hand, the common or field bean becomes the finest mocha," said Mr. Pegram, with the ornate courtesy of the old South.
"And if any one dare to intimate that it is not mocha I shall challenge him immediately," said Winthrop.
"You will have to use a worse threat than that," said Mrs. Markham. "I understand that at your last duel you hit a negro plowing in a cornfield fifty yards from your antagonist."
"And scared the negro's mule half to death," added Raymond.
"But in your cause, Mrs. Markham, I couldn't miss," replied the gallant Winthrop, not at all daunted.
The waffles were brought in hot from the kitchen and eaten with the coffee. After the refreshments the company began to play "forfeit essay." Two hats were handed around, all drawing a question from one hat and a word from the other. It became the duty of every one to connect question and word by a poem, essay, song or tale in time to be recited at the next meeting. Then they heard the results of the last meeting.
"That's Innes Randolph standing up there in the corner and getting ready to recite," said Talbot to Prescott. "He's one of the cleverest men in the South and we ought to have something good. He's just drawn from one hat the words 'Daddy Longlegs' and from the other 'What sort of shoe was made on the last of the Mohicans?' He says he doesn't ask to wait until the next meeting, but he'll connect them extempore. Now we'll see what he has made out of them."
Randolph bowed to the company with mock humility, folded his hands across his breast and recited:
"Old Daddy Longlegs was a sinner hoary,
And punished for his wickedness according to the story;
Between him and the Indian shoes the likeness doth come in,
One made a mock o' virtue and one a moccasin."
He was interrupted by the entrance of a quiet little man, modestly clad in a civilian's suit of dark cloth.