. A book of country clouds and sunshine; . oclock. Most of the farmers have not yetfinished their moimings work; and, l)esides, they do not expectanything of special interest or im]:)()rtance will be done beforeten or half-])ast. The first thing is to ballot for a the friends of some jxuticular man who wants thehonor have arranged previously that this man shall have the 46 47 « « A BOOK OF COUNTRYCLOUDS AND SUNSHINE office; and they arc on nand, and [promptly elect their person elected is usually a man of some vi<;or, with ccju-siderable self-confidence and power o
. A book of country clouds and sunshine; . oclock. Most of the farmers have not yetfinished their moimings work; and, l)esides, they do not expectanything of special interest or im]:)()rtance will be done beforeten or half-])ast. The first thing is to ballot for a the friends of some jxuticular man who wants thehonor have arranged previously that this man shall have the 46 47 « « A BOOK OF COUNTRYCLOUDS AND SUNSHINE office; and they arc on nand, and [promptly elect their person elected is usually a man of some vi<;or, with ccju-siderable self-confidence and power of voice. After he takesthe chair the town-clerk reads the articles of the town-warrant,and the village minister offers a short prayer. In what follows I describe the town-meeting as I know itin one of the older valley farming-towns ; but in most particularsthe story would be much the same in any New luigland countryplace. The town-hall is a low white building, with a pillaredfront, that stands next the church. The church horse-sheds are. At the Town Hall full of teams by the middle of the forenoon. Other teams havebeen left at the hotel and at the near neighbors. There are III. TOWX-MEKTING r, not many stay-at-homes — nearly all the men-folks of the townarc out. J^iit the large majority of them are present, not be-cause of a serious interest in town affairs, but for a holiday-—for the fun they can get out of it. These pcojile like to vote,and they have a personal interest in the license question andin the choice of a few of the town-officers. l^ut it is extremelyrare that one of them says anything publicly in the they carry on long conversations, and they only listenwhen the s])eaking gets exciting or funnv. They like to loiteron the porch outside, and at the Ixick of the room. The mod-erator has at intervals to ask lliem to keep quiet, or he requeststhe constable to keep the door shut and to preserve order. Butthe constable is a stout little man, whose
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherbostonleeandshepar
