CHAPTER XII.
"SOCIETY" AT THE POOR MAN'S HOUSE.
"Be ye given to hospitality."
All the preliminaries were arranged, and the time arrived for the first sociable, as the parties had agreed to call their meeting. They all belonged, according to the common classification, to the lower orders—shame to us that we do not abjure terms inappropriate to our country. Our humble friends, having no help, were obliged to make considerable efforts to effect their meetings; but when persons set about in earnest to obtain a moderate good, they will find, or make a way, to compass the means. Aunt Lottie was always at home to see to the youngest children—there was a care-taking old grandmother in one family—another had a kind "Cousin Sally" ready to lend a hand—and one good mother "would manage any way rather than lose such a privilege for her children." So, at six o'clock, the prescribed time, the members of the sociable, numbering thirty, parents and children included, assembled at the Aikins'. Their room had the air of comfort that tidiness and judicious arrangement can give to the commonest apartment. The bed (it must be remembered the Aikins were yet obliged to make one room serve for kitchen, bedroom, and parlour), the bed was made up as nicely as a shaking Quaiker's, and cov-
