The punch and general conversation seemed to suffice them even after their first thirst had been allayed.

She began to wonder if the ladies were not a more unbending and genial lot than she had once suspected.
A considerable group of them now chatted vivaciously about the replenished bowl, including Madam the President, who had arrived very thirsty indeed, and who was now, between sips, accounting for the singular favor which the Adams family had always found in the sight of God and the people of Massachusetts.

She seemed to be prevailed over, not without difficulty, by Aunt Delia, who related her failure to learn from Clem the ingredients of his acceptable punch.

This was not surprising, for Clem was either never able or never willing to tell how he made anything whatever.

Of this punch Aunt Delia had been able to wheedle from him only that it contained "some little fixin's." Insistent questioning did develop, further, that "cold tea" was one of these; but cold tea did not make plain its recondite potencies--did not explain why a beverage so unassuming to the taste should inspire one with a wish to partake of it continuously.
"We might get him to make a barrel of it for the Sunday-school picnic," said Marcella, brightly, over her fourth cup.