.. and the old-fashioned American songs, too.
And the music softened our hearts and fused us into one harmony of
feeling. And all the bickerings of the community's various "isms" melted
away ... after all, there was not so very much disharmony among us. And,
after all, the marvel is that human beings get along together at all.
* * * * *
The afternoon before the "circus" the little settlement more than ever
took on the appearance of a medieval village ... almost everybody took
turns in participating in the "circus" ... almost everybody togged out
in costume. But first we had a parade of the "guilds" ... the Actors'
Guild, in which Hildreth bore a part; in her pretty tights she looked
like a handsome boy page in some early Italian prince's court.
Don Grahame was the son of the leader of the community whom Jones had
promised to rake over the coals that night, after the circus.
Don led the Carpenters' Guild, looking like nothing else than a handsome
boy Christ. Don, secretly disliking in his heart the free-love doctrines
his father and others taught (though he always rose loyally in his
father's defence) had gone to the other extreme, he lived an ascetic,
virgin life. But it didn't seem to hurt him. He was as handsome as
Hildreth was beautiful.
Everybody liked the young fellow. He had sworn that he would maintain
his manner of abstinent living till he fell in love with a girl who
loved him in return.
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