" There were two lame chairs from Penrod's attic and along
one wall ran a low and feeble structure intended to serve as a
bench or divan. This would come in handy, Sam said, if any of the
party "had to lay down or anything", and at a pinch (such as a
meeting of the association) it would serve to seat all the
members in a row.
For, coincidentally with the development of the shack, the
builders became something more than partners. Later, no one could
remember who first suggested the founding of a secret order, or
society, as a measure of exclusiveness and to keep the shack
sacred to members only; but it was an idea that presently began
to be more absorbing and satisfactory than even the shack itself.
The outward manifestations of it might have been observed in
the increased solemnity and preoccupation of the Caucasian
members and in a few ceremonial observances exposed to the public
eye. As an instance of these latter, Mrs. Williams, happening to
glance from a rearward window, about four o'clock one afternoon,
found her attention arrested by what seemed to be a flag-raising
before the door of the shack.
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