And upon the
floor was much shaved candle. For light there were the four coal-oil
lamps with their foolish reflectors against the walls, and a full moon
shining in through door and windows.
Thornton came late, late that is, for a country dance. It was after
nine o'clock when, riding Comet, he saw the schoolhouse lamps winking at
him through the oaks and heard the merry music of fiddle and guitar in
the frolic of a heel-and-toe polka. Already he made out here and there
the saddle horses which had brought so many "stags" so many miles to the
dance, and which stood tied to tree and shrub. Also there were the usual
spring wagons that had brought their family loads of father, mother,
son, daughter, hired man and the baby; while the inevitable cart was in
evidence speaking unmistakably of mooning couples whose budding interest
in each other did not permit of the drive in the family carry-all.
Thornton noted the vehicles as he passed them, and turned to look at the
saddle horses, saying to himself, "So-and-so is here from Pine Ridge,
So-and-so from the Corners." For hereabouts a man knew another man's
horse and saddle, or wagon, as well as he knew the man himself. So when
Thornton saw the buckboard near the door with its two cream-coloured
mares, there was at once pleasure and speculation in his eyes, and he
told himself, "Somebody is here from Pollard's.
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