uld strengthen the
hands of all faithful workers; it would bring on the field all the best
speakers of the country, and give an impulse to the cause generally.

All this was said with much energy and reiteration, and a good deal of
it was believed; at any rate, all other plans for pleasure were made to
give way before it. It did not so much matter what might be made the
occasion of the gathering, so that folks got together to have a good
time, said the young and foolish, who thought much of whatever would
give enjoyment for the time, and little of anything else. As to
listening to speech-making--there need be no more of that than each
might choose; so in the end almost all fell in with the idea of the
great temperance demonstration, and notice was given to the country at
large accordingly.

But it is only as far as two or three people concerned themselves with
it that we have anything to do with the matter, either as an occasion
for amusement or as a demonstration of principle. Davie brought home to
Katie the news of all that was intended, and added a good deal as to his
opinion of it, which he acknowledged he would have liked to give at a
meeting called to make arrangements, which he and Ben had just attended.

"You should have heard them, grannie, and then you would shake your head
at them and not at me."

And Davie gave them a specimen of the remarks that had been made and the
manner of them, that made even his grandfather smile. There had been a
great deal of inconsequent talking, as is usual on such occasions, and
the chances were that the meeting would have come to an end without
having definitely settled a single point which they had met for the
purpose of settling, if it had not happened that Clifton Holt--at home
for his vacation, he said--strayed into the school-house toward the end.

"And it must be acknowledged that Clif has a head," said Davie
discontentedly. "He is a conceited fellow but he is smart. In ten
minutes they had decided on the place, the grove above Varney's place,
and had appointed committees for all manner of things. And he made them
all believe that the meeting had settled the whole and not himself. You
should have heard John McNider `moving,' and Sam Green `seconding,' and
Jim Scott `suggesting,' and every one of them believing that he was
doing it out of his own head. It is a good thing that Clif thinks
Gershom too small a place for him. He'd play the old squire in a new
way