In the racing Fatty was particularly interested because his young
brother Wilbur, of whom he was uncommonly proud, a handsome lad, swift
and graceful as a deer, was to make his first essay for more than local
honours.
The lists for the other events were equally well filled and every
detail of the arrangements for the day had passed under the secretary's
personal review. The feeding of the multitude was in charge of the
Methodist Ladies' Aid, an energetic and exceptionally businesslike
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.
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