eing good cooks and tidy
housewives.

CHAPTER V.

THE QUEEN'S WEDDING.

"Weddin's-day."

Lizzi's happy thoughts would play upon the word Wednesday, and the
gentle breeze in the pines above her made sweet accompaniment to the
tuneful repetition.

She sat where Gill had said he would meet her, in the pine-grove at the
edge of which stood the church. She had dressed and left home early,
apparently for a walk, but now when the church-bell rung the call for
prayer she was at the trysting-place.

"My wedding-bell," she murmured as the mellow solemn tones fell
quivering on the air. When they ceased the echo floated to her, a
far-away sound almost silence. Clasping her hands, she bowed her head in
thankfulness.

"The angels up in heaven ring my weddin'-bell too, and that means John
and I will be happy."

There was in this muscular daughter of the forest (she was born in a
cabin in the woods) a gentle womanliness that was charming. As the hour
drew near when she would give up her maiden name and freedom, she
thought Time surely ought to go more slowly. He had taken his ease from
Sunday until now, though she, running ahead, had pulled him along; but
now, when only one short hour of her maidenhood was left, the contrary
old fellow would run.

She blushed when, all too soon, she saw her promised husband enter the
grove; and when he took her hand it trembled.

"What, Lizzi, not scared by the dark?"

The pressure he gave her hand and the light laugh that followed his
words corrected their impression, and the sharp pain they caused was
soothed by the knowledge that he really understood.

"What if it had been some other man going through the grove?" he asked.

"Then my hand wouldn't have shook."

It was the coming of the bridegroom that made her heart beat more
quickly and her hand unsteady.

Gill repaid her for the pretty compliment with a kiss. Then they
approached the church, which was wrapped in darkness.

Jim Harker, sexton and squire, had put out the lights after
prayer-meeting was dismissed, and closed the shutters. Inside the church
he was waiting.

Lizzi hesitated when, in answer to Gill's knock, the door was thrown
open and she saw that the church was dark.

"Go in, Lizzi," said Gill. "We'll have a light as soon as the door is
shut. If the church was lit up, somebody would see us go in, and come to
peep to see what we was doin'."

She stepped into the close darkness. Gill followed, and Jim shut th