All the rest had the choice of characters, each according to his place on the list of merit; and as Mr Mason allowed a certain moderate compensation for extra labor beyond the regular task, the buying of finery to figure at this fancy ball proved a great stimulus to many, the women especially. Some of the people were excellent mimics. Every doctor, minister, and overseer in the neighborhood got taken off; and on the whole, Mr Mason said, the acting was often superior to such as he had seen a good deal applauded on the New York and London boards. The idea itself he had picked up from a West India planter with whom he had become acquainted in England.
Two or three days after my arrival at Carleton Hall, Mr Mason and myself, who had become by this time excellent friends, rode to visit Poplar Grove. Of the old servant's quarter, the only building standing was one quite near the great house, a neat little cottage, which Mrs Montgomery had caused to be built on purpose for me and Cassy, and in which our vhild had been born. 'The honeysuckle which we had planted in commemoration of that event, and which she had twined with so much care over the door, was still growing there, though exhibiting many signs of age — old, bent, and gnarled, and the ends of the twigs beginning to die. The little garden around was still neatly kept, and I thought I recognized some of the very rose bushes which she and I had planted. Little did Mr Mason imagine my feelings as we rode together by that cottage door! O, how I longed to be alone and unobserved! It was, indeed, with the greatest difficulty that I prevented myself from springing from my saddle and rushing into the house. It seemed to me almost as if I should find Cassy there and the child!
