La gentada omplí les naus: el vell i indigent administrador de correus, que havia conegut dies millors; el batlle i la seva muller (perque tenien batlle, allí, entre altres coses superflues); el jutge de pau; la viuda Douglas, rossa, elegant i de quaranta anys, esperit benvolent i acomodat, la casa encimbellada de la qual era l'únic palau del poble, i la més hospitalaria i de molt la més prodiga en materia de festes que l'omplís d'ufana; el decantat i venerable ex-alcalde i la senyora Ward; l'advocat Riverson, el nou notable de la rodalia; després la beutat del poblet, seguida d'una colla de joves cortrencadores, vestides de llinó i guarnides de cintes; després tots els joves dependents de la ciutat, corporativament: perque havien romas en el vestíbul tot xuclant el pom del bastó, formant un mur circular d'admiradors oliosos i de somriure badoc, fins que la darrera noia havia passat per les baquetes; i, finalment, vingué el noi model, Willie Mufferson, prenent tan sol·lícita cura de la mare com si ella fos tallada en cristall.
The crowd filed up the aisles: the aged and needy postmaster, who had seen better days; the mayor and his wife--for they had a mayor there, among other unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair, smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her hill mansion the only palace in the town, and the most hospitable and much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St. Petersburg could boast; the bent and venerable Major and Mrs. Ward; lawyer Riverson, the new notable from a distance; next the belle of the village, followed by a troop of lawn-clad and ribbon-decked young heart-breakers; then all the young clerks in town in a body--for they had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane-heads, a circling wall of oiled and simpering admirers, till the last girl had run their gantlet; and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful care of his mother as if she were cut glass.