oming
familiar with the country folk and so kept him out of the way.

Christina laughed at Tilly and her news. The storekeeper's daughter
was always in a high state of excitement over some wonderful happening
in Orchard Glen, while Christina was prepared to testify that nothing
at all ever happened within the ring of its sleepy green hills, and she
immediately forgot all about Mr. Wallace Sutherland.

The next evening was the date of the concert, and excitement ran high.
When Trooper and Marmaduke had visited the Piper they had made
elaborate arrangements for his entry into Orchard Glen. He was to stay
with old Peter McNabb, a relative who lived about half-a-mile above the
village, until the hour for the concert had almost arrived, then he was
to come sweeping down the hill, when the crowds were gathering, and
march playing into the hall where he would open the proceedings. And
if he did not sweep all the folks around the Methodist church back into
the hall with him, then Trooper had missed his guess. Piper Lauchie
was a true Highlander, with a love of the dramatic, and he fell in with
the arrangements with all his heart. The Dunn farm was just next to
Old Peter's house, so early in the afternoon Trooper went over and
ascertained to his satisfaction that Lauchie was there, with his pipes
in fine tune. The two old men were smoking and telling tales of
pioneer days on the shores of Lake Simcoe, with as much zest as if they
were relating them for the first time instead of the forty-first. So,
with everything so well arranged, there was seemingly no cause for
anxiety, and not the most pessimistic Methodist could have prophesied
disaster.

The evening of October first was bright and warm, and at an early hour
the rival crowds began to gather; the worshippers and the revellers,
Mr. Wylie designated them in a remark made afterwards to Mr. Sinclair,
a remark the Presbyterian minister did not forget in a few weeks. The
Methodist church, which was up on the slope of the hill, began to fill
slowly and the Temperance hall, down near the store corner, rapidly. A
group of young men lingered at the door of the hall with their usual
inability to enter a meeting until a few minutes after the hour of
starting. There was also a small group at the door of the Methodist
church farther up the hill. They were not the customary loungers, but
a small self-appointed committee of the Methodist fathers on the
outlook for any of the f