246 WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH. 



weather, and the farm news. The goodwife is at the 

 head of the table, and pours out the tea or milk ; the 

 daughters sit among the men, coming and going as 

 occasion requires to bring water, or bread, or pie. Their 

 attire is plain, their manners are simple and frank. Be- 

 fore the old man there sits a huge dish of stew ; it is 

 made of potatoes, carrots, chicken, and large squares 

 of boiled fat pork, and he helps it out with no niggard 

 hand, and when he has finished his own portion, he quaffs 

 a huge cup of cider, and leans back in his chair with a 

 great sigh of satisfaction, to wait till his youngest 

 daughter, with brown hair and blue eyes, just opening 

 into womanhood, brings his pie. The brass candle-sticks 

 on the mantle-piece are filled with asparagus boughs, the 

 oaken floor is polished with scrubbing, and the tall 

 clock in the passage-way strikes one as the meal is ended. 

 There is another dinner scene that may be as often re- 

 marked in America, and equally characteristic of another 

 class of eaters. A bell rings, or a jangling gong shocks 

 the ear and benumbs every nerve of the back, while five 

 and forty men rush past the waiter that is beating his 

 brazen drum, and sit down to a large hotel table. There 

 are spread on this table various small articles of food or 

 ornament, such as celery, oranges, and figs, which are 

 immediately seized, and presently every person who has 

 evinced agility congratulates himself on having piled by 

 the side of his plate a selection of these fruits and desserts. 

 "Waiters then hand every person a dish of soup, of that 

 consistency that is supposed to be proper to nourish per- 



