"We thought at first that he couldn't be tamed--Mr. Audubon, too,
thought he couldn't--and we clipped his wings to keep him from flying
away. And now he wouldn't go. See! He is the most daring creature. Why,
he will go in the great room before everybody and walk right up to aunt
Penelope when she's making the coffee, without turning a feather!"
It was not till he was leaving that Paul remembered the Sister's message
which had served him as a pretext for stopping. And he was sorry when he
had given it, for a shadow instantly came over the brightness of Ruth's
beautiful face. Riding on to his cabin he wondered what could have cast
the shadow.
XI
THE DANCE IN THE FOREST
She did not go on the next morning. That day had been chosen for the
dance in the forest, one of the two merrymakings dearest to the hearts
of those earliest Kentuckians. The May party came first, with its
crowning of the queen of love and beauty and its dance round the
May-pole; and after that this festival of dancing and feasting under the
golden trees.
Both of these were held as regularly as the opening of the spring
flowers and the tinting of the autumn leaves.
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