164 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



The guest gets confused, mildly inquires if they have any fruit. 



" Yes, sah. Apple-dumpling, sah." 



" Very well ; I will take an apple-dumpling." 



" Hard or soft, sah ? " referring to the sauce. 



" Oh, soft, of course ; " referring to the dumpling. 



The dumpling is dashed down in front of him, as hard as a 

 cocoa-nut, and flooded in soft sauce, while the waiter disappears 

 down the table, gathering up the plates with a clatter, and the 

 room is deserted. 



Once more an American table looms up through the mist of 

 hungry years. A low frame-house, with a porch half covered 

 with the trailing arms of morning-glories and columbines, stands 

 on a knoll of a western prairie. That prairie is browsed by deer, 

 and game birds of the choicest kind feed on it in millions. The 

 river winds along the valley, teeming with fish, its banks margined 

 with water-cresses and dock, and shaded with plum-trees and fruit- 

 bearing vines, while from his cabin-door the settler can see a 

 hundred cattle cropping the wild grass. 



Noon-time arrives, and the head of the house comes in from 

 the ploughing to his meal, and finds the same food that was spread 

 before him at breakfast, and that he will have for his supper, and 

 has had at all his meals for years past. It consists of tea, Indian 

 corn bread, and fried pork. The pork is cut in small slices, and 

 fried until quite brown, and the bread is sopped in the gravy. 

 There is no attempt at grace of service, no white cloth to hide the 

 table, no dainty pat of butter on a grape leaf, such as tempts the 

 eyes and palate in the Tyrolean chalet ; but it is the simple medi- 

 cine to cure a hungry stomach, administered without sweetening. 



The refinement of a family is nowhere so quickly seen as at a 

 table, or selfish instincts become more prominent There is the 

 centre of the family after the day's wandering, there its first meet- 

 ing after a night of forgetfulness ; there we give hospitality to the 

 stranger, there the tongue is loosened, the wandering thoughts 

 called back, and the heart is warmed into expression by generous 

 wine. The feasts of Lucullus were celebrated for their wit, and 

 the simple suppers at the Mermaid were the signals for intellectual 

 tournaments. " He has eaten with me," is the Arab's talisman to 



