Copy-editor thoughts: Does "gather' work when there are only two items to be, well, gathered? Doesn't it imply more than that? Why not just "take" or "pick up"?
N.b.: This is not a call for commentary. This is just one of those "weird things copy editors tend to pause for, that normal people glide right past."
And yes, I will probably poke around for guidance somewhere. Later. Not now. As usual, this is far outside project scope at present.
@nxskok Of interest, grammatically but not statistically:
Garner's Modern English Usage (now in its 5th edition) tells us that , in a nutshell (after much explication with examples), "the only ironclad distinction is that stated by the OED: *between* expresses one-to-one relations of many things, and *among* expresses collective and undefined relations."
Sadly, there's no link to an online version. You need either the book or the app. 😞
@GramrgednAngel analysis of variance begins by asking "are any of the groups different (in terms of mean)", that is, "are there any differences among groups", and then, if there are any differences to find, it proceeds to ask "which (pairs of) groups are there differences between".
So I think my usage tracks with what you are quoting from Garner, and I can go on telling my students that this is how they can be precise with their English.
Karen Conlin
Ken Butler