The door yard was well filled with diners and as it was such a beautiful day, it proved very enjoyable as well as novel way of being fed. The simple cleaning up of paper bags and washing of cups must have been a much lighter task for the women folks than the washing of so many plates, saucers, knives, forks and other dishes and clearing away of tables and taking down of benches to say nothing of the sweeping up and setting things in order after the occupation of the house by such a horde of men as was assembled in the door yard that morning. Lunch being over we still had over an hour on our hands before the event started so we three took a stroll over the field to the big red basement barn of a neighbour. The barn looked to be the property of a prosperous man so we thought the cattle inside it would be worth looking at. We found it filled with grade Holsteins, the feeding and milking of which aparently took all of their young owner's time so that their rather unkempt appearance contrasted unfavorably with that of the herd we had just seen all groomed and cleaned and in every way made attractive looking. On our return we found the big tent which had been erected in case of bad weather had been taken down and was in a big heap under a tree so we three sat down on it to wait for the sale to commence. The warmth of the noonday sun, the drowsiness of the springtime air, the drone of conversation all around us, and the faint aroma of tobacco smoke, all had a very soothing effect and if it had not been for the constant chugging, honking and stopping of cars as they came up the lane and took their places in the orchard, and the cackling laugh of some fellow who with two or three others was perched on an old hayrack under an apple tree and aparently enjoying a very amusing conversation, we three should have gone to sleep. The crowd was continually gathering, the men were making some final preparations in the ring. A group of very small boys whom we guessed had been lured by the song sparrows, the sunshine and the crowd from the monotonous routine of the little school house up the road, came hurrying in and after trying several points of vantage around the ringside, decided that the apple tree over the auctioneer's stand was the ideal grandstand and acting on their decision perched themselves along the limbs. Here they