d bare knees, was marching magnificently from the hall to the racing
track. Lesser beings had to push and jostle through the throng, but he
had a long lane sacred to his own footsteps, and no matter what new
attraction appeared, he always had his following of gaping admirers.

Young ladies, with their attendant swains, in holiday attire, wandered
about arm in arm, eating peanuts. Some lovers, of the old-fashioned
type, who plainly knew very little of the requirements of fashion, went
about hand in hand, and were the object of many witty remarks on the
part of those who followed the more up-to-date method. Farmers with
long beards, their backs bent with honest toil, collected around the
show horses, or sat in the high buggies, round-shouldered and content,
and smoked and chewed and spat, and were, withal, supremely happy.
Whole family circles, the young father proudly carrying the baby, the
mother holding as many as possible by the hand, revolved in an aimless
but joyous orbit. Old women in plaid shawls gathered in groups near
the piper's avenue, and talked a continuous stream of Gaelic.

The hall, containing the product of the women's deft fingers, stood
near the gates. At one side was a long shed devoted to the display of
farm produce, and the homely place was beautiful with scarlet apples,
golden pumpkins, cabbages opening like great, pale-green roses, and
heaps of purple grapes and plums. Opposite this, in a corner, the
cattle and sheep, and other farm stock, were herded, each living
creature lifting up its voice in protest against the sudden disturbance
of its hitherto even and well-ordered life. At the end of the field,
opposite the gate, a rocky and uneven road, in the shape of an ellipse,
served as the race track. A grand-stand, formed by nature from a
grassy knoll, covered with sweet-smelling pines, rose at one side, and
made a convenient and delightful resting place.

Having handed Hannah and Joey over to Jake, who arrived in a neighbor's
buggy, just behind them, Gilbert tied his horse and wandered about,
shaking hands and looking at the prizes. He was captured by Tim and
Davy, the former in a state of wild excitement, because his pumpkins
had taken first prize, and Davy's only second. On the other hand,
Keturah, his cow, had taken only third; but old Sandy McKitterick had
said that Spectacle John was judge, and that he didn't know a cow from
a giraffe. And Isaac and Rebekah had taken first, anyhow,