other of the bride. It was his first service of the
kind, and the company were somewhat amused when, in absence or confusion
of mind, he pronounced the nuptial blessing upon _M_ and _N_, the
letters which stand in the church ritual for the names of the parties
contracting. Accordingly, at the wedding supper, the first toast was
drunk "to the health and happiness of M and N," and responded to with
much merriment.

I have further been told that the bride's elder sister, afterwards known
as Mrs. Francis, danced "in stocking-feet" with my father's elder
brother, this having been the ancient rule when the younger children
were married before the older ones.

In spite of the costume which met with her daughter's disapproval, my
maternal grandmother was not indifferent to dress. She used to lament
the ugliness of modern fashions, and to extol those of her youth, in
which she was one of the _elegantes_ of Southern society. She remembered
with pleasure that General Washington once crossed a ball-room to speak
with her. This was probably when she was the wife or widow of Colonel
Herne, to whom she was married at the age of fourteen (when her dolls,
she told me, were taken away from her), and whose death occurred before
she had attained legal majority. She had received a good musical
education for those times, and Colonel Perkins of Boston once told me
that he remembered her as a fascinating young widow with a lovely voice.
It must have been during her visit to Boston that she met my grandfather
Cutler, who straightway fell in love with and married her. When past her
sixtieth year she would sometimes sing an old-time duet with my father.
She had a great love of good literature. Here is what she told me about
the fashions of her youth:

"We wore our hair short, and _creped_ all over in short curls, which
were kept in place by a spangled ribbon, bound around the head. Powder
was universally worn. The _Marechale_ powder was most becoming to the
complexion, having a slight yellowish tinge. We wore trains, but had a
set of cords by which we pulled them up in festoons, when we went to
dance. Brocades were much worn. I wanted one, but could not find one at
the time, so I embroidered a pretty yellow silk dress of mine, and made
a brocade of it."

She once mentioned having known, in days long distant, of a company of
ladies who had banded themselves together for some new departure of a
patriotic intent, and who had waited upon General