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MICHIGAN FOOD & BEES BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
The ox team, that was dignified with the name of "horned horses, ried the merry loads through the woods to the house of the settler who gave the party. We can recall instances where a prayer meeting was held in a log house one evening, and on the next evening a party was given in the same house. The same ones who composed the choir and sang "Old Hundred, " "Come ye sinners, poor and needy, " or, "Awake my soul to joyful lays, " at the prayer meeting, led the next night at the party in—
"Come Philander, let's be a-marching.
looking back upon these scenes from to-day's stand-point, we might feel inclined to be censorious and call them frivolous, silly recreations, if not morally wrong. Well, it does look like nonsense now. Distance don't lend any enchantment to them. But we can look back upon the past and find a good many things done forty years ago, that appear like nonsense to us now which were not so to the people of that day. They were harmless recreations, and under like circumstances would be so to-day. After the customary conversation and chitchat were over, the programme for an evening party sometimes began in this way, —A young man would ask a young lady to take his arm, and they would begin marching around the room; another couple, and another followed, till a full set were promenading two and two about the floor, each chiming in the catch which the first couple commenced singing as they took the floor:
"We're all a marching to Quebec;
The drums are loudly beating, The Americans have gained the day,
And the British are retreating; The wars are o'er, and we'll turn back
To the place from whence we started; So open the ring and choose1 a couple in
To relieve the broken hearted. "
Michigan
Page 26
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