ed their foolishness, Kirsty yielded,
and the girls came over and sewed and scrubbed and baked, and Scotty
and Peter Lauchie gathered in the apples and turnips and potatoes and
raked away all the dead leaves and made everything neat and tidy for
the great event.

And the day actually dawned, in spite of Weaver Jimmie's anticipation
that some dire catastrophe would befall to prevent it. A radiant
autumn day it was, a Canadian autumn day, when all the best days of the
year seem combined to crown its close. The dazzling skies belonged to
June, the air was of balmiest May, and the earth was clothed in hues of
the richest August blooms. The forest was a blaze of colour. The
sumachs and the woodbine made flaming patches on the hills and in the
fence-corners. The glossy oaks, with their polished bronze leaves, and
the pale, yellow elms softened the glow and blended with the distant
purple haze. But Canada's own maple made all the rest of the forest
look pale, where it lined the road to the bride's house, in rainbows of
colour, rose and gold and passionate crimson.

Early in the afternoon high double buggies, waggons, and buckboards
began clattering up the lane to Kirsty's dwelling. And such a crowd as
they brought! In the exuberance of his joy Weaver Jimmie had bidden
all and sundry between the two lakes. And besides, everyone in the Oa
went to a MacDonald wedding, anyway. Invitations were always issued in
a rather haphazard fashion, and if one did not get a direct call, it
mattered little in this land of prodigal hospitality, for one always
bestowed a compliment upon one's host by attending.

Long Lauchie's girls took the whole affair out of Kirsty's hands and
arranged everything to their hearts' desire. The cooking and washing
of dishes was to be done in the old house, while the double ceremony of
the marriage and the wedding dinner was to be performed in the new
establishment.

This place was gaily decorated with the aromatic boughs of the cedar,
dressed with scarlet berries and crimson maple leaves. A table at one
end held the wedding presents. This was the work of the Lauchie girls,
too, for Kirsty felt it was nothing short of ostentation to put up to
the public gaze all the fine quilts and blankets and hooked mats the
neighbours had given her towards the furnishing of the new home. But
the girls had their way in this as in all other arrangements, and most
conspicuous in the fine array were a Bible from