Thus, piecemeal, the momentous facts came out.
"Anniversary?"
"Yes, Aunt Marjie."
"Let's see—how many is it this year?" asked Mrs. Needham turning to her husband.
"Twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth, I think," he replied.
"Oh, Alf, do you think the Goodmans have been married that long?"
"You know," declared Miss Whitcom, "all this is interesting but terribly mysterious. Thanks, Anna, I've had the pickles. I'm mystified by these Goodmans from Cleveland. So I understand the Midsummer Roast is in the nature of an anniversary party also?"
"Well, yes," replied Anna Needham. "It was started, I guess, more than twenty years ago, even before we began coming up here. There were only a few families at first. Alf, were the Goodmans the first to begin coming up?"
"Unless it was Blakes," he suggested.
"But didn't the Blakes begin coming because the Goodmans did, Alf?"