layed, and romped, and eaten and
drunk themselves into a state of torpor by an early hour of the
evening. The farmers' dinner was a decided success. East proposed
the health of the bride and bridegroom, and was followed by
Farmer Grove and the constable. David turned out in a new blue
swallow-tailed coat, with metal buttons, of his own fabulous cut,
in honor of the occasion. He and the farmer spoke like the leader
of the Government and the Opposition in the House of Commons on
an address to the Crown. There was not a pin to choose between
their speeches, and a stranger hearing them would naturally have
concluded that Harry had never been anything but the model boy
and young man of the parish. Fortunately, the oratorical powers
of Englebourn ended here; and East, and the majority of his
guests, adjourned to the green, where the cricket was in
progress. Each game lasted a very short time only, as the youth
of Englebourn were not experts in the noble science, and lost
their wickets one after another so fast, that Tom and Hardy had
time to play out two matches with them, and then to retire on
their laurels, while the afternoon was yet young.

The old folks in the village school-room enjoyed their beef and
pudding, under the special superintendence of Miss Winter, and
then toddled to their homes, and sat about in the warmest nooks
they could find, mumbling of old times, and the doings at Dr.
Winter's wedding.

David devoted himself to superintending the issue of beer,
swelling with importance, but so full of the milk of human
kindness from the great event of the day, that nobody minded his
little airs. He did his duty so satisfactorily that, with the
exception of one or two regular confirmed soakers, who stuck
steadily to the tap of the Red Lion, and there managed
successfully to fuddle themselves, there was nothing like
drunkenness. In short, it was one of those rare days when
everything goes right, and everybody seems to be inclined to give
and take, and to make allowances for their neighbours. By degrees
the cricket flagged, and most of the men went off to sit over
their pipes, and finish the evening in their own way. The boys
and girls took to playing at "kissing in the ring;" and the
children who had not already gone home sat in groups watching
them.

Miss Winter had already disappeared, and Tom, Hardy and the
Captain began to feel that they might consider their part
finished. They strolled together off the green