The fourth corner of the yard is given to the restaurant patio. Tables for about 24 guests are set up on three levels. They are laid with a variety of dishes and silverware, flower bouquets and interesting decorative pieces that don't overwhelm the space but draw one's interest. Each table has an umbrella, Over all stretches a large old mulberry tree.

Two beautiful Dexter girls serve the meal, first a glass of punch, followed by iced tea. The tea and plenty of ice are refilled at frequent intervals throughout the meal.

Vicki Drake, one of the owner-cooks, comes out to offer a toast to "the beauty of nature and our creator."

Then the girls put a plate of hors d'oeuvres in front of everyone; a couple of squares of two-colored cheese, celery, pear tomatoes, a delicious thick-cut cucumber slice seeded and stuffed with a cream cheese mixture and topped with chives and a handful of Salsa Sunchips.

The food is beautiful and tasty and whets our appetites while we listen to and watch a presentation by Shirley Lindly, who talks about wildflowers and makes arrangements of them in interesting containers while she talks.

She says she was "desperate" to find wildflowers, but she has many kinds -- water grasses, echinacea, coneflowers, leatrice, butterfly weed, milkweed pods, ferns, bergamot, fleabane, several types of grasses. And she's brought a few domestic flowers to fill out her supply.

She shares some important points about flower arranging: If you don't like the way it looks, start over. Experiment with what you've got. You can mix domestic and wildflowers to good effect. Use whatever you want for a vase. She also says she's begun to work with fewer flowers in an arrangement.

"Less is more in flower arranging, too," she says.

While she talks and works, the girls serve salads; mixed greens and red onions, ramen noodles and almonds with a slightly sweet dressing.

Just as Shirley is finishing her presentation, the girls serve the main course; chicken salad with grapes, celery and nuts on a romaine lettuce leaf, more grapes and pineapple slices, a warm slice of French bread lightly buttered, and the best part of it all: truly exquisite deep fried squash.

The squash has been dipped in a very thin batter that gives it body but doesn't disguise the flavor.

While we eat, Miss Twiggley - Lyn Killingsworth, another owner - in mismatched but starched and pressed clothing, a jaunty hat and sensible brown lace-up boots, reads aloud "Miss Twiggley's Tree," about a shy lady who lives in a tree with her dog, Puss, and helps the town in time of hurricane and flood.

It's a wonderful story, and it feels like we're part of it sitting among the greenery and the late afternoon sun.

Vicki asks us to introduce ourselves.

For a small group, we've come from a lot of places; Dexter, Burden, Cedar Vale, Winfield, Arkansas City, Oxford and Udall. Goes to show -- people will go a ways for a good meal and a pleasant evening.

The last part of the program is Shirloy Sexton who demonstrates painting rocks or rock-like items to create garden decorations.

She makes a caterpillar in vivid green, orange and black and several ladybugs in red and black.

Like Shirley, Shirloy tells the group not to be afraid to try.

"If it doesn't look right when I'm done, I just paint it again. That's what I've done with my living room," she says."Don't be intimidated."

Both women recommend doing things inexpensively.

She uses her acrylic paints and 25-cent brushes for her work. Shirley mentions buying half-priced bouquets of flowers at Wal-Mart on Mondays and saving florists' foam and other items for reuse.

The women's zest for what they are doing makes them very appealing.

The meal couldn't end without dessert and this one is special.

It's made with pink lemonade mixed with vanilla ice cream and with whipped topping for two consistencies. The ice cream and topping are then layered in a tulip glass with sponge cake and finished off with a sprig of mint.

Wow! The ice cream tastes mellow and the topping zingy.

The party ends with door prizes -- all those bouquets and stone animals -- and party favors, flower seeds and begonias in cups, choose your own.

Remarkably, it's only toward the very end of dinner, after 8, before there are any insects about. And though the sun slants into the yard and across one table, no one rushes away.

MayBelle tells us that if you plan to return to the place for dinner, you fold your napkin. If you don't, you just wad up the napkin. At our table, we all fold our napkins.

The ride back to Winfield in the deepening twilight is the gathering in of lovely memories. And a longing for more of that squash.

The Gathering Place is open from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon-3 Sundays.