esslike
organization, which fully expected to make sufficient profit from the
enterprise to clear off the debt from their church at Maplehill, an
achievement greatly desired not only by the ladies themselves but by
their minister, the Reverend Harper Freeman, now in the third year of
his incumbency. The music was to be furnished by the Band of the
Seventh from London and by no less a distinguished personage than Piper
Sutherland himself from Zorra, former Pipe Major of "The old Forty-twa."
The discovery of another piper in Cameron brought joy to the secretary's
heart, who only regretted that an earlier discovery had not rendered
possible a pipe competition.

Early in the afternoon the crowds began to gather to MacBurney's woods,
a beautiful maple grove lying midway between the Haleys' farm and
Maplehill village, about two miles distant from each. The grove of
noble maple trees overlooking a grassy meadow provided an ideal spot for
picnicking, furnishing as it did both shade from the sun and a fine open
space with firm footing for the contestants in the games. High over a
noble maple in the centre of the grassy meadow floated the Red Ensign of
the Empire, which, with the Canadian coat of arms on the fly, by common
usage had become the national flag of Canada. From the great trees the
swings were hung, and under their noble spreading boughs were placed the
tables, and the platform for the speech making and the dancing, while at
the base of the encircling hills surrounding the grassy meadow, hard by
the grove another platform was placed, from which distinguished
visitors might view with ease and comfort the contests upon the campus
immediately adjacent.

Through the fence, let down for the purpose, the people drove in
from the high road. They came in top buggies and in lumber wagons,
in democrats and in "three seated rigs," while from the city came a
"four-in-hand" with McGee, Cahill, and their backers, as well as other
carriages filled with good citizens of London drawn thither by the
promise of a day's sport of more than usual excellence or by the lure
of a day in the woods and fields of God's open country. A specially
fine carriage and pair, owned and driven by the honourable member of
Parliament himself, conveyed Piper Sutherland, with colours streaming
and pipes playing, to the picnic grounds. Warmly was the old piper
welcomed, not only by the frisky cheery secretary, but by many old
friends, and by none more warmly