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Around 10 o'clock, people began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank. It is a lovely summer day.
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Children are the first to gather and started to make a pile of stones in the corner of the square. For this, they choose the smoothest and roundest stones.
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Men and women began to gather. Men speaking of planting and rain and women exchanging bits of gossip. They started to call their children.
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Mr. Summers, who is the person in charge of conducting the Lottery, arrives in the square carrying the black wooden box. The postmaster, Mr. Graves, follows him,carrying a three-legged stool.
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There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers declared the Lottery open. There were the lists to make up- of heads of families, heads of households in each family, members of each household in each family. A very bureaucratic process.
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Mrs. Hutchinson comes hurriedly along the path to the square and joins the crowd saying " Clean forgot what day it was!" People laugh at her and Mrs. Delacroix says "you're in time, though. They're still talking away up there"
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Mr. Summers explains the rules of the Lottery to the people and checks his list of the villagers, then he calls the first person of the list, Mr.Adams
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After every villager has his folded paper, Mr.Summers allows everyone to open his piece of paper. Suddenly, all the women began to speak at once, saying: "Who's got it?". Then the voices began to say: "It's Hutchinson. It's Bill Hutchinson", "Bill Hutchinson's got it"
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Tessie Hutchinson protests about what she thinks it's an injustice. According to her, her husband Bill didn't have enough time to draw, but nobody listens to her.Every member of Hutchinson family is forced to select a slip of paper from the black box to choose "the winner".
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Finally, Tessie Hutchinson gets the slip of paper with the black spot and becomes "the winner", but the prize is uncommon. The villagers pick up the stones gathered earlier. Then they attack her as she screams "It isn't fair, it isn't fair" desperately.
