It was the evening of New Year's day, 186--. The leading people, in fact
nearly all the people of the three villages forming the town of
Eastborough, were assembled in the Town Hall at Eastborough Centre. The
evening was pleasant and this fact had contributed to draw together the
largest audience ever assembled in that hall. Not only was every seat
taken, but the aisles were also crowded, while many of the younger
citizens had been lifted up to eligible positions in the wide window
seats of the dozen great windows on three sides of the large hall.

The large attendance was also due in part to the fact that a new and
original musical composition by Mr. Strout, the singing-master, would be
sung for the first time in public. Again, it had been whispered up at
Hill's grocery at Mason's Corner that the young city fellow who was
boarding at Deacon Mason's was going to be present, and this rumor led
to a greatly increased attendance from that village.

The audience was a typical one of such communities at that period;
horny-handed farmers with long shaggy beards and unkempt hair, dressed
in ill-fitting black suits; matronly looking farmers' wives in their
Sunday best; rosy-cheeked daughters full of fun and vivacity and
chattering like magpies; tall, lank, awkward, bashful sons, and
red-haired, black-haired, and tow-headed urchins of both sexes, the
latter awaiting the events of the evening with the wild anticipations
that are usually called forth only by the advent of a circus.

The members of the chorus were seated on the large platform, the girls
being on the right and the fellows on the left. A loud hum of
conversation arose from the audience and chorus, a constant turning over
and rattling of programmes gave a cheerful and animated appearance to
the scene. The centre door at the rear of the platform was opened and