After the coffee and the customary pousse-café the company went out into the court-yard to dance country dances and to play fox and geese and my lady's toilet. Nothing could be more picturesque than this latter game, played in the open air in a yard studded with trees. The players took their places each under a tree. One only remained in the open. Each furnished his or her contribution to my lady's toilet—one being her dress, another her necklace, another her ring, and so forth. It was the office of one of the players to direct the game. As soon as he called for one of these articles the one representing this article was obliged at once to leave his post, which was promptly taken possession of by another. Then, as the different articles of my lady's toilet were called for rapidly, a lively interchange of positions was set up between the players, the one left out in the first place striving to capture any post that might be left for an instant vacant. This merry game was continued until my lady considered her toilet complete. Then, on the cry, "My lady wants all her toilet," all the players change places with alacrity, and the one who was left out had to pay a forfeit. It is not to be supposed that this game was conducted without a vast deal of laughter and clamor and ludicrous mishaps.
When the ladies were tired the party went into the house to amuse themselves less vigorously with such games as "does the company please you," or "hide the ring," "shepherdess," or "hide and seek," or "hot cockles," etc. They ended up with a game proposed by Jules, which was ordinarily productive of much laughter.
The early Canadians, though redoubtable warriors on the battle-field, were thorough children in their social gatherings. Being nearly all kinsfolk or friends of long standing, many of their games which in these days might be regarded in the best circles as overfamiliar were robbed of the objectionable element. The stranger would have said that they were a lot of brothers and sisters letting their spirits have free play within the privacy of the family.
It was not without deliberate purpose that Jules, who still felt the pinch Elise had given him, proposed a game by which he hoped to get his revenge. This is the game: A lady seated in an arm-chair begins by choosing some one as her daughter. Her eyes are then blindfolded, and, by merely feeling the faces of the players, who kneel before her one by one, with their heads enveloped in a shawl or scarf, she is required to pick out her daughter. Every time she makes a mistake she has to pay a forfeit. It is often a man or an old woman who kneels before her thus disguised, whence arises many a laughable mistake.
When it came the turn of Elise to take the arm-chair, she did not fail to select Jules for her daughter, with the purpose of tormenting him a little during the inspection. As each person knelt at the feet of the blindfolded lady, all the others sang in chorus:
"Oh, lady, say, is this your daughter?
Oh, lady, say, is this your daughter?
In buckles of gold and rings galore,
The watermen bold are at the oar."
The blindfolded lady responds in the same fashion: