There's nobody like papa in the whole world."
By and by the company began to arrive, and the wide grounds were gay
with children in dainty summer costumes and bright silken sashes.
Musicians were stationed in an arbor, and their instruments sent forth
tripping waltzes and polkas, and the children danced, looking like
fairies as they floated over the velvet grass. When the beautiful old
Virginia reel was announced, even Cynthia was led out, Mr. Dean himself,
a grand gentleman with stately manners and a long brown beard, showing
her the steps. Cynthia felt as if she had been dancing with the
President. Cinderella at the ball was not less delighted, and this
little Cinderella, too, had a misgiving now and then about to-morrow,
when she must go home to the housework and the boarders and the
gathering of beans for dinner. Yet that should not spoil the present
pleasure. Cynthia had never studied philosophy, but she knew enough not
to fret foolishly about a trouble in the future when something agreeable
was going on now.
In her mother's little well-worn Bible--one of her few
treasures--Cynthia had seen this verse heavily underscored: "Take
therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself." She did not know what it meant. She would
know some day.
I cannot tell you about the supper, so delicious with its flavor of all
that was sweet and fine, and the open-air appetite the children brought
to it.
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