"Grey, Zane - Betty Zane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grey Zane)

were stuck into the walls, lighted up a scene, which for color and animation
could not have been surpassed.

Colonel Zane's old slave, Sam, who furnished the music, sat on a raised
platform at the upper end of the hall, and the way he sawed away on his
fiddle, accompanying the movements of his arm with a swaying of his body and a
stamping of his heavy foot, showed he had a hearty appreciation of his own
value.

Prominent among the men and women standing and sitting near the platform could
be distinguished the tall forms of Jonathan Zane, Major McColloch and Wetzel,
all, as usual, dressed in their hunting costumes and carrying long rifles. The
other men had made more or less effort to improve their appearance. Bright
homespun shirts and scarfs had replaced the everyday buckskin garments. Major
McColloch was talking to Colonel Zane. The genial faces of both reflected the
pleasure they felt in the enjoyment of the younger people. Jonathan Zane stood
near the door. Moody and silent he watched the dance. Wetzel leaned against
the wall. The black barrel of his rifle lay in the hollow of his arm. The
hunter was gravely contemplating the members of the bridal party who were
dancing in front of him. When the dance ended Lydia and Betty stopped before
Wetzel and Betty said: "Lew, aren't you going to ask us to dance?"

The hunter looked down into the happy, gleaming faces, and smiling in his half
sad way, answered: "Every man to his gifts."

"But you can dance. I want you to put aside your gun long enough to dance with
me. If I waited for you to ask me, I fear I should have to wait a long time.
Come, Lew, here I am asking you, and I know the other men are dying to dance
with me," said Betty, coaxingly, in a roguish voice.

Wetzel never refused a request of Betty's, and so, laying aside his weapons,
he danced with her, to the wonder and admiration of all. Colonel Zane clapped
his hands, and everyone stared in amazement at the unprecedented sight Wetzel
danced not ungracefully. He was wonderfully light on his feet. His striking
figure, the long black hair, and the fancifully embroidered costume he wore
contrasted strangely with Betty's slender, graceful form and pretty gray
dress.

"Well, well, Lewis, I would not have believed anything but the evidence of my
own eyes," said Colonel Zane, with a laugh, as Betty and Wetzel approached
him.

"If all the men could dance as well as Lew, the girls would be thankful, I can
assure you," said Betty.

"Betty, I declare you grow prettier every day," said old John Bennet, who was
standing with the Colonel and the Major. "If I were only a young man once more
I should try my chances with you, and I wouldn't give up very easily."

"I do not know, Uncle John, but I am inclined to think that if you were a