This was something new
to me, for it was the first time in my life that I had struck
society, and I would have given all of my previous summer's wages
to have been away from there. I did not know how to conduct
myself, and every time I made a blunder--which seemed to me every
time I made a move--I would attempt to smooth it over, and always
made a bad matter worse.
Next morning at the breakfast table I told the Colonel and his
wife that I was going back into the mountains as fast as I could
get there. I knew I could track Indians, and fight them if
necessary, but I did not know how to entertain ladies, especially
when my best clothes were only Indian-tailored buckskin.
Mrs. Elliott assured me that she would not have had me come there
dressed differently, had it been in her power to prevent it.
"Dressed otherwise than you are," she said, "you would not be the
same 'boy scout' that my husband has told us so much concerning."
Of course this was encouraging, and I concluded that I might not
have been so painfully ridiculous as I had supposed. For, be it
known, I had been scarcely able to sleep the night before for
thinking of what an outlandish figure I had cut that night before
all those high-toned ladies, and of the sport my presence among
them must have created.
However, I felt much better after the pleasant way in which Mrs.
Pages:
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180