As the day for the fair grew nearer the town became on edge with excitement. Here was a holiday which appealed to everyone, whether farmer or not. It brought the whole village together as a unit. I was surprised to find how much local spirit really existed below all the apparent indifference. I found there wasn’t a man or woman who didn’t have some town pride, however slight. The trouble was that they seldom had an opportunity to express it. Holt kept up a running fire of comment in the local paper, which was glad to give us all the space we wished. It made the most readable and inexpensive copy they had received for a long time. We also got out posters and distributed them among the neighboring towns, bidding everyone come as guests of the village. Every merchant decorated his store a week in advance and the Woodmen band in anticipation of the event practiced new pieces every night. Ruth secured the town hall for the women and arranged there for an exhibition of New England cooking, preserving and needle work, which instantly gave the women an active interest in the undertaking. She also arranged to serve here a free lunch of coffee, sandwiches and cakes to out-of-town visitors. Her committee decorated the interior of the old building with wild flowers and flowers from the home gardens, with a background of evergreens gathered by the small boys. We received requests for street privileges from a number of fakirs and sold these for enough to purchase settees to go around the band stand. We used some care, however, in giving out our permits and barred all gambles of whatever kind. About a dozen came into town the day before and erected their booths which gave the village still more of a holiday aspect. That night there wasn’t a livelier village in the State. It was so full of anticipation that I don’t believe more than half the population got their full night’s sleep for the first time in twenty years. “Are we dead yet?” demanded Holt of Ruth as he prepared to leave us long after midnight and after being up since four A. M. “Some of you will be if you don’t go right home this minute and get some sleep,” she answered. CHAPTER XI A GREAT DAY