-mSSe 
     
     big clock on the wall chimed the hour of three, warning all hands to 
     
     join their wives and help with the shopping that must be done before they 
     
    
   
   
    
     could start for home. 
     
    

    
     The foregoing program applied mainly to men of middle age and older. A 
     
     younger adult element were likely, especially during the Christmas season, 
     
     to revisit the vendor and lay in a substantial additional supply to fortify 
     
     themselves against the long, cold homeward drive. It was noticeable that, 
     
     at this particular time, these men were seldom accompanied by their wives. 
     
     Those traveling in the, same general direction usually left town at approx- 
     
     imately the same hour; the procession of sleighs, harness bells chiming, 
     
     moved in leisurely fashion along the old Tryon Road, with occasional pauses 
     
     ‘to permit visiting from one sleigh to another for the sharing of a nip or 
     
     two. 
     
    

    
     At New Haven Corner. where some of the party branched off to St. 
     
     Catherine's and cross-river points, while others continued on to Churchill, 
     
     Bonshaw, the Green Road, and locations to the north and west, there was a 
     
     halt for a final bit of convivialty. Toasts were drunk and pledges of 
     
     eternal friendship exchanged, to the accompaniment of snatches of 
     
     Christmas carols on a background of "Comin! Through The Rye," "Danny Boy," 
     
     or "Loch Lomond." Sometimes, however, a jarring note was cast into the 
     
     prevailing harmony when a reveller from, it might be, New Haven ques tioned 
     
     the fistic ability of a representative of, it might be, the Green Road. 
     
    

    
     The aggrieved party leaped from his Sleigh and challenged his insulter to 
     
     back up his words; all hands gathered around, and the belligerents started 
     
     throwing punches. Nobody ever suffered any great damage; their efforts were 
     
     hampered by their heavy clothing, so that they quickly ran out of steam. 
     
     The spectators now called upon the combatants to shake hands. Eternal 
     
    
   
   
    
     friendship was once more declared to exist and a deoch an dorris was drunk