Christian Brothers, the semi-monastic teachers of the Catholic school.

And this was the picnic of the Catholics of Octavius. He gazed in
mingled amazement and exhilaration upon the spectacle. There seemed
to be literally thousands of people on the open fields before him, and
apparently there were still other thousands in the fringes of the woods
round about. The noises which arose from this multitude--the shouts of
the lads in the water, the playful squeals of the girls in the swings,
the fused uproar of the more distant crowds, and above all the diligent,
ordered strains of the dance-music proceeding from some invisible
distance in the greenwood--charmed his ears with their suggestion of
universal merriment. He drew a long breath--half pleasure, half wistful
regret--as he remembered that other gathering in the forest which he had
left behind.

At any rate, it should be well behind him today, whatever the morrow
might bring! Evidently he was on the wrong side of the circle for the
headquarters of the festivities. He turned and walked to the right
through the beeches, making a detour, under cover, of the crowds at
play. At last he rounded the long oval of the clearing, and found
himself at the very edge of that largest throng of all, which had been
too far away for comprehension at the beginning. There was no mystery
now. A rough, narrow shed, fully fifty feet in length, imposed itself
in an arbitrary line across the face of this crowd, dividing it into two
compact halves. Inside this shed, protected all round by a waist-high
barrier of boards, on top of which ran a flat, table-like covering, were
twenty men in their shirt-sleeves, toiling ceaselessly to keep abreast
of the crowd's thirst for beer. The actions of these bartenders greatly
impressed Theron. They moved like so many machines, using one
hand, apparently, to take money and give change, and with the other