rested
The excerpt describes how the students are out of school for the summer and they come to the gathering place first. The narrator sets the tone for this event by describing the feeling of liberty as uneasy. Most students who are out of school for the summer have feelings of freedom since they are no longer stuck in school all day, following rules, and sitting in desks. However, the narrator says that this "feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them." The word sat in this case means the same as rested. It's as if the feeling was a blanket holding them down.
