What does it mean?

Quite at random, I opened up one of my long-forgotten bookmarks, and clicked through to this version of "Country Roads," by the Ukuleles of Halifax.

Then, sitting down with a sandwich, I opened this new biography of Charles Fort, and immediately hit this sentence:

Without enough chairs, the guests sprawled on the pine floor and avoided the clusters of burning candles; Masters read from his Spoon River Anthology and another guest picked out a tune on the ukelele.