CHAPTER XVIII.
The New Year's Ball—A Check to Festivity—The Midnight Ride—Death in the Old Brown House.
oliday festivities and dancing parties were words synonymous in the early settlement of Minnesota, and, although Mrs. Sherman would have been shocked at the bare idea of her daughter attending a public ball in her native village, the influences of a new country so wrought upon her prejudices, that her scruples gradually yielded; and, when Louise rather doubtfully asked permission to attend a party of the kind to be given on New Year's Eve, she gained a reluctant consent.
"I could not consent on any account, Louise," said her mother with a view to excuse this apparant departure from her principles, "if I had not sometime ago had some conversation with the doctor on the subject. I have great confidence in his judgment, and, I am sure he would not desire it, if it were not a proper place for you. However, I have my misgivings, for I never was allowed to go to such a place when I was young," and she sighed, "but as the Doctor says, there is no other amusement for the young in this new country," and she sighed again. "Is Miss DeWolf going, Louise?"
"Yes, mother, Ned says he had hard work to persuade her to go. She don't like to leave her father. What a pity he is such a sot. I believe I should detest such a father. I don't see how she can be so good to him."
"She is a dutiful daughter, Louise, and a noble girl, and I hope nothing will ever happen to prevent her becoming Edward's wife."