for love's consummation than the two drifting on the old river whose
limpid waters never again "shall blacken below, spear and the shadow
of spear, bow and the shadow of bow," and which, after rushing a
tortuous way between its wild gorges, steadies by the old settlement
on the plain, and saunters smooth and straight and deep a space
between fertile banks gardened with lucerne fields, orchards of peach
and apricot, and delightful orange groves. The air was intoxicatingly
heavy with the exquisite perfume of these bridal blooms, and the
soft-scented breezes laughed as they too kissed the close-pressed lips
of the fair young pair who--

"Gathered the blossom that rebloom'd, and drank
The magic cup that filled itself anew."

Ah! Love's idyllic hours on the breast of a grandly gliding river,
when the dews were on the flowers, and all was enchantingly sweet and
fair under the sleep-time silver of a southern summer moon!

TWENTY-NINE.

"The savage sells or exchanges his daughter, but in
civilisation the man gives his away, and is thankful for the
opportunity."--_Reflections of a Bachelor Girl._

Dawn took a great deal of her own way, Ernest and I were privileged to
make suggestions so long as we were careful to remember our
insignificance, and grandma saw to it that her lawful rights were not
altogether usurped.

Occasionally it fell to my lot to act in a slightly mediatorial
capacity, owing to the divergence of the swell wishes of the
bridegroom-elect, and the plebeian determination of his
grandmother-in-law to be, regarding the wedding celebrations, but
Ernest was exceptionally unselfish and therefore very long-suffering.

Dawn being under age, her grandmother came forward with a project that
her father should be apprised of what was transpiring, requested to
give his daughter away, and to bring some of his side of the house to
the wedding. Dawn raised vigorous opposition.

"It would be like my father's presumption to interfere in any way,
considering his career with my mother. I hate him for a mean coward.
He's the very style of man I'd be ashamed to acknowledge as an
acquaintance yet alone own as a _father_! I'd like to see him dare to
give me away,--he'd have to own me first!"

"Well, Jake, there, will have to give you away then," said grandma.

"I'd give _him_ away with pleasure," replied Dawn. "If I _must_ be
_given_ away like a slave or animal, you'll give me away grandma, or