The dinner-table, to which we now come, and which two or three negroes
have been busily employed in cumbering with well-filled plates and
dishes, was most plentifully furnished; though but few of its contents
could properly be classed under the head of delicacies. There were eggs
and ham, hot biscuits, hommony, milk, marmalade, venison, _Johnny_, or
journey cakes, and dried fruits stewed. These, with the preparatory
soup, formed the chief components of the repast. Everything was served
up in a style of neatness and cleanliness, that, after all, was perhaps
the best of all possible recommendations to the feast; and Ralph soon
found himself quite as busily employed as was consistent with prudence,
in the destruction and overthrow of the tower of biscuits, the pile of
eggs, and such other of the edibles around him as were least likely to
prove injurious to his debilitated system.
The table was not large, and the seats were soon occupied. Villager
after villager had made his appearance and taken his place without
calling for observation; and, indeed, so busily were all employed, that
he who should have made his _entree_ at such a time with an emphasis
commanding notice, might, not without reason, have been set down as
truly and indefensibly impertinent.
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