of your toilsome environment, dressed in your best, and drove or
walked leisurely to church, with a feeling of ease and well-being that
no hurried pleasure-seeking could ever give. And you met all your
friends and neighbours there, and had a word with them, and
incidentally you were reminded that while crops and cattle and fine
horses and motor cars and a swelling bank account were good things to
possess; like the work of the past week, they would be put away one
day, while the unseen things would remain.

The McKenzies came down the path from the farm above, the whole family,
from Old Johnnie, who was an elder, to Katie, who was Christina's age.
They paired off with the Lindsays, and Bruce and Ellen dropped behind,
for they had gotten so far on their courtship, that they even walked to
church together, in broad daylight, a stage that was supposed to
immediately precede a wedding.

The young folk from the Browns came pouring out of their gate. The
Browns were Methodists and the old folk went only to their own church
which held its meetings in the evening. But youthful Orchard Glen
practised Church Union very persistently, and the Browns were only
following the usual custom when they went to each church impartially.

Mrs. Johnnie Dunn and Marthy came bouncing past in their car. The
Woman was a Methodist, but Marthy was a Presbyterian so they went to
both churches. Trooper Tom never went with his Aunt anywhere that
could be avoided and he came down the pathway with the wide stride that
marked him for a rider of the plains, and walked beside Sandy.

They were down in the village proper now, and every house sent out its
representatives. The village did not begin until the Lindsay hill had
been descended and the little bridge that spanned the brown stream
crossed, and right on the bank stood the tiny cottage where little
Mitty Minns and her old invalid grandmother lived. Mitty had lately
married Burke Wright who worked in the flour mill, and was now emerging
from the gate with her new husband, fairly bubbling over with joy and
pride at being off alone with him for a few hours, away from Granny's
complainings.

Across the street stood a much more imposing residence, Dr. McGarry's
red brick, white pillared home. Mrs. Sutherland, his widowed sister
who kept house for him, came rustling out in her best black silk, and
wonder of wonders, the Doctor with her!

Joanna Falls, the blacksmith's daughter, burst from the n