, declared their
satisfaction that Stella was going to do the proper thing at last.

Daddy was the daddy of old times, before the dark clouds of doubt and
despair had gathered around him and he had drifted about, the derelict Mr.
Wirt; while Miss Stella, veiled in soft mists of tulle, looked what she
had been, to him, what she would ever be to him--his guiding star. Polly,
who was the only bridesmaid (for so Marraine would have it), carried a
basket of flowers as big as herself; Father Tom said the Nuptial Mass; and
Freddy stood at daddy's side, the very happiest of "best men." And Dan who
was off on his summer vacation at Killykinick, came down in the "Sary
Ann," with Captain Jeb slicked up for the occasion in real "store
clothes." And there was a wonderful wedding feast at the Forester home,
with a cake three stories high, and three tables full of wedding presents;
Captain Carleton's diamond star, that he _would_ send, shining with
dazzling light among the rest.

And, then, such a house-warming followed as surpassed Freddy's wildest
dreams with a real fire leaping on the hearth, with the rugs and curtains
and cushions just right; for Miss Stella (or Marraine as she chose that
Freddy should call her,--for, as she said, "Your own dear mother is in
heaven, my boy"),--Miss Stella had picked them all out herself. And Father
Tom beamed happily on his reconstructed family; and the Fathers and
Brothers and boys from St. Andrew's dropped in without ceremony; for
Marraine had welcome for all, now that she was a fixed star in her real
home and her real place.

Though dear Aunt Winnie has dropped at least ten years of her life, and
old Neb's whale oil has done more for her rheumatism than all the store
medicines she ever tried; though more joy and comfort has come into these
sunset years than she ever dared hope, she still sits on her little porch
in the evening, with a look in her old eyes that tells she is dreaming.

"What do you see, Aunt Win?" asked Dan one evening as after a tough pull
up the Hill of Knowledge, he bounded up the Mulligan stairs to drop at her
feet and lay his head in her lap.

"Sure it's not for an old woman to spake, Danny dear!" she answered again
as of old. "It's too great, too high. What was it that holy saint, Father
Mack, said to you, alanna? Sometimes I forget the words."

"That it would be a hard climb for me against winds and storms," said Dan.
"And, golly, it will! I am finding that out myself