was but nine of the clock, and the shadow of the Maypole was long upon the
grass. Along the slightly rising ground behind the meadow stretched an
apple orchard in full bloom, and between that line of rose and snow and
the lapping of the tide upon the yellow sands lay, for the length of a
spring day, the kingdom of all content.

The shadow of the Maypole was not much shrunken when the guests of the
house of Jaquelin began to arrive. First to come, and from farthest away,
was Mr. Richard Ambler, of Yorktown, who had ridden from that place to
Williamsburgh the afternoon before, and had that morning used the
planter's pace to Jamestown,--his industry being due to the fact that he
was courting the May Queen's elder sister. Following him came five Lees in
a chariot, then a delegation of Burwells, then two Digges in a chaise. A
Bland and a Bassett and a Randolph came on horseback, while a barge
brought up river a bevy of blooming Carters, a white-sailed sloop from
Warwick landed a dozen Carys, great and small, and two periaguas, filled
with Harrisons, Aliens, and Cockes, shot over from the Surrey shore.

From a stand at one end of the grassy stage, trumpet and drum proclaimed
that the company had gathered beneath the sycamores before the house, and
was about to enter the meadow. Shrill-voiced mothers warned their
children from the Maypole, the fiddlers ceased their twanging, and Pretty
Bessee, her name cut in twain, died upon the air. The throng of humble
folk--largely made up of contestants for the prizes of the day, and of
their friends and kindred--scurried to its appointed place, and with the
issuing from the house gates of the May Queen and her court the
festivities commenced.

An hour later, in the midst of a bout at quarterstaff between the
Jamestown blacksmith and the miller from Princess Creek, a coach and four,