to be
distinguished far above one's fellow-songstresses. Bella Winters once
sang "The Larboard Watch" with Wes Long at the Glenoro Dominion Day
picnic, and until this was transcended she was the envy of one and all.
Ella Anne Long, of course, was the one who achieved even greater
heights. She and Mack McQuarry sang "The Larboard Watch" at the next
Elmbrook harvest home, while at one and the same time she played the
accompaniment. No one had ever before conceived of such a triple
triumph, and it was felt by all that Ella Anne would surely experience
some disciplining misfortune to balance things. So, every one nodded
her head and said, "I told you so," when Mack went off to Athabasca, or
some such out-of-the-way corner of Canada, and married a half-breed,
when Ella Anne had her wedding clothes all ready. And now she was no
longer quite one of the young people of the village, and, besides, was
receiving attentions from Sawed-Off Wilmott, a little widower, who ran
the cheese factory, and who could not have sung even bass if he had had
all his teeth.

Nevertheless, as Miss Long went about her duties she was watching
eagerly for Mr. Wilmott's buggy. It was not for the reasons why a
maiden usually looks for her lover, but because Davy Munn and the
oldest orphan were sitting on the sidewalk at the doctor's gate, with
mischievous designs upon her middle-aged admirer. As she stood on the
porch, shading her eyes from the slanting rays of the sun, Sawed-Off's
buggy came whizzing down the street, and Miss Long modestly withdrew.
Two or three of the earliest arrivals had already entered by the store
door, and Mr. Wilmott soon joined them. He had safely passed Scylla
and Charybdis at the doctor's gate, but a worse fate awaited him, for
the Sawyer twins were there, and his youthful spirits proved so
attractive that they appropriated him as their own, and kept him from
even speaking to Ella Anne all evening.

On practice nights the whole village gathered at the Longs', the
company dividing itself into three parts. Ella Anne's friends
assembled in the parlor, Mrs. Long received the mothers in the kitchen,
and Silas entertained on the store veranda.

The Elmbrook kitchen was a fine place to receive one's friends; it was
not the tiny workshop now in fashion, but a big, roomy place, where the
homemaker sacrificed to the household gods, with the stove a sort of
shining high altar in the center, and the incense from the merry ke