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laughing. "It was at one of the most stylish houses in the District. Tea was handed round. Instead of the usual sandwiches, we had buttered flapjacks, sprinkled with sugar. I waited, thinking knives and forks were coming. If they had come, I could not have used them, for I had to hold my cup and saucer. At last I looked round. I saw the ladies fold back their flapjacks into quarters, then take them daintily in their fingers, as if they were pieces of pie." "Well, Sophie Gray, if you hadn't told that yourself," began the Professor's wife,

"You wouldn't have believed it," ended Mrs. Gray, laughing; "but it actually happened on the 28th of December, 1842."

"Why, mamma," said Patty, who had been listening with her mouth wide open, "could you remember that little bit of a thing all this while?”

"Yes, Patty," said her mother. "I remember it, because I expected your father to join me at the party, after a long absence."

"Did you ever see anybody else do so?" said Patty, still unbelieving.

"No," said Mrs. Gray. "I knew one gentleman who always ate his buckwheats in the same

fashion; but I thought that happened to be his own fancy. If I had not seen the ladies take it so quietly, I should have thought it an accident; but nobody asked for a fork, so I didn't.""

"Didn't they know better?" said Patty.

"Yes," said mamma, "I think they did. I laid it where I laid almost everything in those days to the indifference and carelessness growing out of slave labor. I was once dining with a dear friend, and a boiled shad was brought in on a round plate. My dear!' said the gentleman to his wife, 'why can't you see that Chloe puts the shad on a proper dish?' My pretty, kind friend, at the head of the table, looked up quite astonished, and said, 'Why, Miss Early knows we've got dishes!""

They all laughed, but the Professor's wife clapped her hands. "Dear old Virginia to the life!" said she.

"I am glad I have my fish on a long plate,” said Patty; "I should think it would wriggle off!"

Paul took a piece of bark out of his pocket, and showed it to Mrs. Gray. He said it was a "treaty." It was made of the beautiful bark of

the silver birch, and two Indian chiefs had made their "totems" on it. Patty looked at it, and thought she could make out a reindeer and a turtle.

"I should like to see a real treaty," said she, "such as kings and emperors sign."

"You may see one in half an hour,” said Paul. "I am going down to the State Department, and I will show you the Webster and Ashburton treaty if you will go."

"What was that?" said Patty.

"A treaty that England and America signed, to settle the shape of the State of Maine," said Paul. "May she go, mamma?"

"And welcome," said Mrs. Gray. "I was going to take her to Kalorama, but I am too tired. I felt quite independent walking about with her this morning, but in 1842 I could not have gone without a gentleman. In those days, if a gentleman went out with a lady, he wasn't allowed to leave her till he shut her safe inside of her own front door."

How merrily Patty laughed! She ran up stairs to get the soft gray hat, and very soon she and Paul were on their way.

Paul had permission to copy some curious state papers for a friend in England, and as soon as he got to the State Department, he found a clerk willing to wait on him, to whom he had to explain what he wanted. They had some talk about the birch bark treaty, for it was about that that Paul had come. They went into another room together, and after a few moments Paul called Patty; he held some papers in his hand.

"Do you know who Benedict Arnold was?" said he.

"He was the man who made Washington sorry," said Patty, looking up.

"I am afraid a good many men did that," said Paul; "but see! These are the papers that were found in André's boots when he was caught; and here are letters which Arnold wrote on birch bark, from an Indian camp."

Patty looked at the letters. "Did he make his ink of berries?" said she. "I am glad I have seen them, they make the story seem so real. Now I can believe there were such people."

Paul's business was ended. "We will go into the Audience Chamber," said he, "and see the treaty."

The Audience Chamber was a plain room, with a few pictures hanging on the walls. The clerk who had been listening to Paul went with them, and took the Ashburton treaty out of a carved oaken box. It looked like a book written in a clear and upright hand on parchment, and bound in crimson velvet. Broad ribbons of blue, crimson, green, and pink hung about it, and it was tied with a cord and tassels of crimson and silver. To this cord the English seal was fastened. Patty thought this would be of sealingwax; but it looked like beeswax. She could just see a print of a woman on horseback upon it; but the lines were very faint. This seal was shut into a silver box, with the arms of England upon it. Patty looked at the signature of Victoria. It was very large and coarse, each letter a third of an inch long.

"She can't always write like that," said Patty, in wonder.

"No," said Paul; "what a lot of paper it would take!"

"Is there only one treaty?" said Patty.

"There are two," said Paul; "the other is in England; that is sealed with the United States seal."

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