Explore "The Voyage of the Hoppergrass" by Edmund Lester Pearson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It was hard to get them started -- they were clustered so thick around the Deacon and his little box, all talking and laughing and discussing. Everyone was awake now, and animated, -- if those six little yellow lumps of gold had appeared sooner, even the Hon. J. Harvey Bowditch couldn't have put the people to sleep.
By sending the Deacon and the gold nuggets ahead, the procession was formed again for the wharf. The band stayed in the yard, playing tune after tune, and enjoying themselves immensely.