The banquet was held outdoors, with long beech wood tables being fetched from storage and placed between the houses and the flowers.
A group of about twenty young men sat around the long table, their eyes frequently shifting towards the girls they fancied, shy and fiery. Some people's gazes even wavered, lingering between the three girls, looking quite troubled.
Bartlett roughly counted, for a total of nine outsiders, including himself, which was an exact number. He sat next to old Samuel, sipping his cocktail and casually chatting with the farmer about the task at hand.
