{"chapter_no":"14","chapter_title":"The Three-Dollar Lawn","book_id":"4","book_name":"Beauty the World Has Never Seen","subchapter_no":"0","page_no":"705","page_number":"1","verses_count":0,"total_pages":2,"page_content":"

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Chapter 14<\/p>

The Three-Dollar Lawn<\/h1><\/p>

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The Springville East Stake gathers momentum as it moves towards its next milestone in the
gospel.<\/i><\/p>

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The new generation of stake conference centers included one other important aspect to
their design––the expanded seating area used for stake conferences converted easily into a
supersized cultural hall. The rows of seats could be taken up and rearranged with tables to
support a stake dinner––a banquet feast of Zion––while still leaving the stage area intact for
special performances of the stake choir, stake orchestra, and other performers. The Springville
East Stake Choir, comprised of fifty men and fifty women, and its orchestra, had become
somewhat famous over the years and was considered among the best choir groups in the Church,
and even in the nation.<\/p>

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It had been the custom of the Springville East Stake in recent years to have a dinner party
with special entertainment every three months, after which the hall was cleared of tables and
chairs for a dance, much like this delightful scene from A Christmas Carol<\/i>:<\/p>

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“Hilli-ho!” cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk, with wonderful agility.
“Clear away, my lads, and let’s have lots of room here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!” <\/i><\/p>

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Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn’t have cleared away, or couldn’t have
cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed
off, as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the
lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm,
and dry, and bright a ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter’s night. <\/i><\/p>

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In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and made an
orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial
smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers
whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In
came the housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook, with her brother’s particular
friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having board
enough from his master; trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but <\/i>one, who<\/i> was
proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came, one after another; some
shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all
came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round and <\/i><\/p>

back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of
affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple
starting off again, as soon as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help
them! <\/i><\/p>

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When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance,
cried out, “Well done!” and the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially
provided for that purpose. But scorning rest, upon his reappearance, he instantly began again,
though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home, exhausted, on a
shutter, and he were a bran-new man resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>

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There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake,
and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of
Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies<\/i>....<\/i><\/p>

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But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an
artful dog, mind! The sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told it
him!)<\/i> <\/i> struck <\/i>up ”<\/i>Sir<\/i> Roger de Coverley.” Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs.
Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; three or four and
twenty pair of partners; people who were not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and
had no notion of walking.<\/i><\/p>

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These gatherings of the stake grew quite large over time, becoming the major social
events of the community for members and nonmembers both. Bishoprics, priesthood quorums,
mission leaders, Relief Societies, and youth organizations laid aside their normal activity
planning in wards to pool resources for these stake-wide gala events, with even more preparation
being done for the Zion celebration in June and the Christmas celebration in December. <\/p>

 <\/p>

The larger and more exciting events were proving to be much more valuable to the gospel
than the scattered, ad hoc events in wards of past decades, allowing people to plan for and look
forward to them on a regular basis. Nonmembers and the less active came out in large numbers,
requiring the stake conference center, which was already quite large to begin with, to be made
larger still. <\/p>

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<\/span>The Springville East Stake, on the move towards its next frontier in the gospel, the three-
dollar lawn, was like a train moving down the tracks at great speed, full of momentum. Zion is
about the love of God, about the law of consecration, about beautiful music, about desire, and
about humility, but it is also about momentum––the increased excitement and joy of the gospel
present in the lives of its people. Individual members feel it, families feel it, wards and stakes
feel it, the Church as a whole feels it and, ultimately, the world around us begins to feel it. <\/p>"}