But the interior of her
hut was arranged for their reception---the usquebaugh
was brewed or distilled in a larger quantity
than it could have been supposed one lone woman
could have made ready. Her hut was put into such
order as might, in some degree, give it the appearance
of a day of rejoicing. It was swept and decorated
with boughs of various kinds, like the house
of a Jewess, upon what is termed the Feast of the
Tabernacles. The produce of the milk of her little
flock was prepared in as great variety of forms as
her skill admitted, to entertain her son and his associates
whom she expected to receive along with
him.
But the principal decoration, which she sought
with the greatest toil, was the cloud-berry, a scarlet
fruit, which is only found on very high hills, and
there only in small quantities. Her husband, or
perhaps one of his forefathers, had chosen this as
the emblem of his family, because it seemed at once
to imply by its scarcity the smallness of their clan,
and by the places in which it was found, the ambitious
height of their pretensions.
For the time that these simple preparations of
welcome endured, Elspat was in a state of troubled
happiness.
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