A
large collection of tin-pans had been made, and the pumpkin vines of
the vicinity had been dismantled for the construction of pumpkinstalk
trombones, provided with which, some hundreds of small boys were to be
in attendance.
Although the loud guffaws which from time to time were heard from the
group of men and hobbledehoys about the horse-fiddles on the green,
were evidence that the projected entertainment was not without comical
features as they looked at it, the aspect of the affair as viewed by
other eyes was decidedly tragical. Mrs. Woodbridge had long been
sinking with consumption, and the uproar and excitement of the
preceding night had left her in so prostrate a condition that Dr.
Partridge had been called in. During the latter part of her aunt's
sickness Desire Edwards had made a practice of running into her Uncle
Jahleel's many times a day to give a sort of oversight to the
housekeeping, a department in which she was decidedly more proficient
than damsels of this day, of much less aristocratic pretensions, find
it consistent with their dignity to be. The doctor and Desire were at
this moment in the living-room, inspecting through the closed shutters
the preparations on the green for the demonstration of the evening.
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