of the said organ could be further reenforced. But when even ice-cream
and marshmallows refused to go down they gave up and dragged themselves
away to some spot where a more lucky or efficient comrade was still
blissfully busy.

The married men openly loosened their belts and looked about for a
quiet and restful spot. The unmarried ones went sneaking off where
their mothers and their best girls couldn't see them smoking their
cigarettes.

In the general relaxation Dolly Beatty slipped off her tightest shoe,
one bunion and four corns clamoring loudly for room. And though nobody
saw her do it, everybody knew that Sam Bobbins' wife had gone behind
some convenient bush and taken off her new corset.

In this quiet time old friends searched each other out and sat
peacefully talking over old times. The married women kept their eyes
on the strolling couples, hoping to see a lovers' quarrel or discover a
new and as yet unannounced affair. Little by little news was
disseminated and listened to that in the elaborate preparations of the
past days had been overlooked or unreported.

David and Jocelyn were in the crowd of merrymakers and yet not of it.
They had selected a fine old tree a little removed from the thick of
things and here Jocelyn spread their luncheon.

"It's a lucky thing," she explained shyly, "that Decoration Day doesn't
come earlier in the year or I'd never have dared to go to a party like
this and be responsible for lunch. About all I knew how to make when
we came to Green Valley was fudge, fruit salad and toasted