Thus they turned the whole neighbourhood into a
"bee."
For this was Sanger, where small gatherings held the same place as the
club, theatre and newspaper do in the lives of city folk. No matter
what the occasion, a christening, wedding or funeral, a logging, a
threshing, a home-coming or a parting, the finishing of a new house
or the buying of a new harness or fanning-mill, any one of these was
ample grounds for one of their "talking bees"; so it was easy to set
the wheels a-running.
At three o'clock three processions might have been seen wending
through the woods. One was from Burns's, including the whole family;
one from Raften's, comprising the family and the hired men; one from
Caleb's, made up of Saryann and many of the Boyles. All brought
baskets.
They were seated in a circle on the pleasant grassy bank of the
pond. Caleb and Sam took charge of the ceremonies. First, there were
foot-races, in which Yan won in spite of his wounded arm, the city boy
making a good second; then target-shooting and "Deer-hunting," that
Yan could not take part in. It was not in the programme, but Raften
insisted on seeing Yan measure the height of a knot in a tree without
going to it, and grinned with delight when he found it was accurate.
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