On lifting this, each boarder found a small heap of solemn black huckleberries.

But one of those plates held red currants, and was covered with a red rose; the other held white currants, and was covered with a white rose.

There was a laugh at this at first, and then a short silence, and I noticed that her lip trembled, and the old gentleman opposite was in trouble to get at his bandanna handkerchief -- "What was the use in waiting?
We should be too late for Switzerland, that season, if we waited much longer."-- The hand I held trembled in mine, and the eyes fell meekly, as Esther bowed herself before the feet of Ahasuerus .-- She had been reading that chapter, for she looked up,--if there was a film of moisture over her eyes there was also the faintest shadow of a distant smile skirting her lips, but not enough to accent the dimples,--and said, in her pretty, still way,--"If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes"-- I don't remember what King Ahasuerus did or said when Esther got just to that point of her soft, humble words,--but I know what I did.

That quotation from Scripture was cut short, anyhow.

We came to a compromise on the great question, and the time was settled for the last day of summer.
In the mean time, I talked on with our boarders, much as usual, as you may see by what I have reported.