And again at this auspicious moment a huge waiter covered with little
mountains of white ice-cream made its appearance through the front
door, impelled by the motive power of Mr. Mark Everett's elegantly
white-flannel-trousered legs, and guided to a landing beside the cake
by Rose Mary, who was a pink flower of smiles and blushes.
Then it followed that in less time than one would think possible the
company at large was busy with a spoon attached to the refreshments
which to Sweetbriar represented the height of elegance. Out in the
world beyond Old Harpeth ice-cream and cake may have lost caste as a
fashionable afternoon refreshment, having been succeeded by the
imported custom of tea and scones or an elaborate menu of reception
indigestibles, but in the Valley nothing had ever threatened the
supremacy of the frozen cream and white-frosted confection. The men
all sat on the end of the long porch and accepted second saucers and
slices and even when urged by Rose Mary, beaming with hospitality,
third relays, while the Swarm in camp on the front steps, under the
General's management, seconded by Everett, succeeded in obtaining
supplies in a practically unlimited quantity.
"Looks like Miss Rose Mary's freezer ain't got no bottom at all," said
Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he began on a fourth white mound. "It
reminds me of 'the snow, the snow what falls from Heaven to earth
below,' and keeps a-falling." Mr. Rucker was a poet at heart and a
husband to Mrs.
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