." Oh, that's the goldlined loving cup we saw in the
window. Our boys have won it twice and the Caledonias have won it twice.
If we get it this time, it will be ours for keeps. "Run with truck one
hundred and fifty yards; take twenty-five foot ladder," and so forth
and so forth, Dan O'Brien's the boy for scaling ladders. He was going to
enlist in the Boer War, he hates the English so. Down on them the worst
way. And say, what do you think? Last year, at Caledonia, he won the
first prize for individual ladder scaling. And what do you suppose the
first prize was? A picture of Queen Victoria. Isn't that Caledonia all
over? there's a kind of rivalry between our boys and the Caledonias.

Here they come now. Those are the Caledonian. Tell by the truck .... Do
you think so? I don't think they're anything so very much. Nix. You'll
never do it. Look at the way they run with their heads up. That shows
they're all winded. Look at the clumsy way they got the ladder off the
wagon. Blap! The judge thought it was coming through the boards on him.
Oh, pretty good, pretty good, but you just wait till you see our boys.
Look at the fool hanging there on the ladder waiting till the time is
announced. Isn't that Caledonia all over? Yah! Come down! Come down!
What is it? Twenty-five seconds. What's the record? Twenty-four and
four-fifths? Oh, well, it isn't so bad for Caledonia, but you just
what our boys do. Hear those yaps from Caledonia yell! If there's
anything I despise it is for a man to whoop and holler and make a public
spectacle of himself. Who's this? Oh, the Radnors. They're out of it.
Look at them. Pulling every which way. That ladder's too straight up
and down. Twenty-seven and two-fifths. What did I tell you?... What time
does your train go? Well, why don't you and your wife come take supper
with us? Why didn't you look us up noon-time?... I could have told you
better than that. (They went to the Ladies' Aid dinner.) Well, we shan't
have much, I expect, but we'll try and scrape up something more
filling than layer-cake. The idea of expecting to feed hungry people
on layer-cake! It's an imposition.... I didn't notice which one it
was. Doesn't matter any way. Only twenty-eight. Ah, here are our boys.
They've got blue silk running-breeches on. Well, maybe it is sateen. Let
the women folks alone for knowing sateen from silk a mile off. How much
a yard did you say it was? Notice the way they start with their hands
on the ground, jus