Gergue shook his head. “I tell you, Wint,” he said. “You better go on home and write you a speech. A good one, with flowers on it, and all.” “Oh, I don’t need to.” “I’ve seen more’n one man get up on his hind legs and go dumb. Good idea to have something on your mind before you get up.” “We-ell, maybe.” “I tell you,” Gergue said again. “You go on home and fix up something. Best thing to do.” “I want to see Sam.” “I’ll see him.” Wint was more than half persuaded, before Peter spoke to him. He had thought of going home; he was tired. He wanted to sleep. He said: “We-ell, all right.” “That’s the talk,” said Peter. “You go along.” “So long, then.” “Fix you up a good one,” Gergue advised him again. “Fix it up, and learn it, and all. You’ll maybe be interrupted, you know.” “If there’s any one there to interrupt,” Wint said, in a tone of doubt; and Gergue cackled. “Lord, there’ll be some folks there. Don’t you worry about that. You go home and fix you up a speech. You’ll have a crowd.” So Wint went home, in mid-afternoon. He found the house empty. His mother, he thought, was probably next door, with Mrs. Hullis. He felt sleepy; and he went to his room and lay down. His father woke him, at last. Told him it was supper time. At supper, Chase asked Wint’s mother if she were going to Wint’s rally. She said: “I don’t know. I said to Mrs. Hullis this afternoon that I wanted to go, but I didn’t know whether women went. And she said she didn’t know either. But I told her I--” “You’ll have plenty of company,” her husband told her. “From what I hear, the whole town is going to be there. Every one was talking about it this afternoon.” “Then I’m going,” she said. “Mrs. Hullis wanted me to go with her; and I--” “You go with her,” Chase advised. “I’ll be on the stage, with Wint.” She said: “I’ll have to leave the dishes. There won’t be--” “I’ll do them, mother, while you’re dressing,” Wint told her cheerfully. “Don’t worry about that.” “Well, I don’t know!” In the end, Wint and his father did them together. Wint broke a plate, and Mrs. Chase called down the stairs to know what had happened, and protested that she ought to come down and do them. But they would not let her. Afterwards, they all started downtown together, Wint and his father, Mrs. Chase and Mrs. Hullis. Two by two. It was dark; the early dark of a winter evening. They met people, or overtook them, or were overtaken by them; and Wint thought there were more people than usual abroad. The moon was bright again this night, bright as it had been the night before when Wint took his way to the Weaver House. That seemed more like weeks than hours ago. As they came nearer the Rink, they saw more people; and Chase said: “You’re certainly going to have a crowd.” Wint nodded. He was beginning to be nervous. He realized that this was going to be hard.