So far as I was concerned I was wretched, especially when the younger people began turning the gathering into a "play party." Now there was a difference between a play party and a kissing party or kissing bee, as we used to call it.

The play party was quite respectable, and could be indulged in by church-members.

In it the people taking part sang airs each with its own words, and moved about in step to the music.

The absence of the fiddle and the "calling off" and the name of dancing took the curse off.

They went through figures a lot like dances; swung partners by one hand or both; advanced and retreated, "balanced to partners" bowing and saluting; clasping hands, right and left alternately with those they met; and balanced to places, and the like.