MISQUAH — The summer reading program’s finale — the certificates, the tier badges, the ice cream, the annual attempt to photograph forty-one children facing the same direction — is set for Friday, August 28, at 2 p.m. at the library, Megan Tollefson announced this week, with an addendum the whole town will read twice: Ruth Aune intends to be there, and intends to hand out the top-tier certificates herself.

“Intends,” Tollefson emphasized, is Mrs. Aune’s word, relayed by telephone in the tone the library has learned means the matter is largely settled. “She said the doctors are being reasonable and she expects the trend to continue. She also asked how many are finishing in the top tiers, so she knows how many names to practice. She has been practicing names since 2003. She doesn’t need to practice. She’s practicing.”

The record class of forty-one has spent the summer climbing the animal ladder — the tiers Mrs. Aune invented, the new rungs added in June, and the ink rung added during smoke week, which will be acknowledged at the finale “formally,” Tollefson said, declining to elaborate on what a formal acknowledgment of a ladder rung entails. Brynn Solberg’s summer, conducted above the eagle tier in territory the ladder is still being extended to describe, will reportedly require “a word with the artist.”

The finale lands five days after the fair closes and three weeks before the first bell, in the pocket of late August the town reserves for endings it can be proud of. Ice cream is donated, the certificates are green-ink adjacent per district custom, and cards for Mrs. Aune — the pile at the desk having been reshelved twice already — may now be addressed to the finale itself, where the town is advised she will be receiving them in person. Doctors permitting. The doctors, the town is further advised, know what’s good for them.