134 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



and the light certainly attracted night-flies and 

 moths from the inferior lights of the dwelling. 

 Around these fires the children would sport. Each 

 little fellow would take a pride in having a little 

 fire of his own ; the larger and more daring would 

 show their courage by leaping through the flames. 

 Around its cheerful blaze time seemed to fly on 

 golden wings. It was literally light to the dwelling, 

 and a house without its yard fire appeared desolate 

 and sorrow-stricken. It was the daily task of the 

 hostler to collect materials sufficient to keep the 

 light burning until bedtime. By ten o'clock social 

 life was over, and the repose of sleep sought. 

 Whilst the visitor was preparing to return home, 

 the servant lit his lantern, and with this simple but 

 necessary escort, she trod the streets of the village 

 with as much security as the halls of her own 

 mansion. 



Hunting, riding, and social visiting were the 

 several and separate amusements of the sexes in 

 Pineville. The chief amusement of which they par- 

 took, in common, was dancing. The languid city 

 belle, who cannot conceive of the exertion necessary 

 to a dance in summer, except, indeed, under the 

 exhilarating influence of a watering-place, may 

 stare ; but the unsophisticated youth of both sexes 

 in Pineville regarded dancing as both proper and 

 natural. The month of June would be devoted to 

 feeling at home, and then, by way of making a 



