Part 12 (1/2)

”Couldn't seem to rest ... mind too active, I suppose ... thinking up a little something to say this afternoon ... brain works best when my feet are in motion,” were a few of the fragments they caught as he strode back and forth.

Mrs. Cane expressed mild surprise. ”Couldn't sleep!” she said. ”It's so lovely and quiet--I don't see how you could fail to catch a few winks.

Our other advantages sometimes fail us, but we can always rely on peace and quietude here in the country.”

The colonel made no reply as he continued his beat. After a few rounds he brought up before Mrs. Cane and asked irrelevantly, ”Is there a band or a drum corps in this town?”

”Oh, yes!” she a.s.sured him. ”We have an excellent cornet band and a drum corps as well.”

”You'll hear them both this afternoon,” Mr. Cane volunteered. ”They're sure to be in the parade.”

”Where do they do their practicing?” pursued the colonel.

”Sube can tell you more about that than I can,” replied the host, turning to Sube who had just put in an appearance. ”Where does the band practice, Sube?”

”They used to practice in the barber shop, but now they're practicin' in the town hall,” Sube told him.

”Now?” asked the colonel with an unexpected show of interest.

”Oh, no. Not right _now_,” replied Sube. ”They only practice nights.”

”Hum,” said the colonel. ”Where does this drum corps practice?”

”At the Henderson farm,” replied Sube promptly; ”that's three miles out in the country.”

”Any other musical organizations around here?” the colonel persisted.

”Sir?--No, sir,” answered Sube. ”But--”

”But what, my lad?” asked the colonel, noting Sube's apparent modesty.

”Nuthin'; but I was jus' wonderin',” mumbled Sube, ”if you played in the Rochester band.”

As the colonel rather frigidly replied that he most distinctly did not, Sube was nervously forced into the background by his parents, and a moment later was as unostentatiously as possible elbowed into the house.

Two o'clock saw the whole town in the opera house. Three-thirty saw them emerging red-eyed and melting. Three-forty saw the parade in process of formation and nearly ready to move.

The First Division was led by the hea.r.s.e containing the mortal remains of Captain Roy, flanked on either side by an escort of G. A. R.

veterans. Immediately behind the hea.r.s.e was the Silver Cornet Band; and following close on the heels of the band were two carriages of chief mourners. Then came in order, the G. A. R. veterans bearing their tattered regimental colors; a carriage with Colonel Smythe, Mr. and Mrs. Cane, and the Village President; carriages filled with Village Trustees, Street and Sewer Commissioners, and the Committee on Arrangements wearing fluttering decorations on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s; and other prominent citizens in carriages.

The Second Division was made up of the local fire companies led by the Henderson Drum Corps.

Every man, woman and child in the towns.h.i.+p who was able to walk was eligible for the Third Division, and most of them were there.

While the parade was forming, Grand Marshal Richards from the back of his trusty charger discovered far back in the crowd a martial band to which no place had been a.s.signed, and promptly dispatched one of his aides to conduct them to the head of the Third Division. As the strange band fell in line bystanders noted with interest the name on the head of the ba.s.s drum:

[Ill.u.s.tration:

CANES MARITAL BAND]