prospect.

"Are _you_ going to be married?" asked Betty, so soberly that the boys
shouted, and Thorny, with difficulty, composed himself sufficiently to
explain.

"No, child, not just yet; but sister is, and I must go and see that is
all done up ship-shape, and bring you home some wedding-cake. Ben will
take care of you while I'm gone."

"When shall you go?" asked Bab, beginning to long for her share of cake.

"To-morrow, I guess. Celia has been packed and ready for a week. We
agreed to meet George in New York, and be married as soon as he got his
best clothes unpacked. We are men of our word, and off we go. Wont it be
fun?"

"But when will you come back again?" questioned Betty, looking anxious.

"Don't know. Sister wants to come soon, but I'd rather have our
honeymoon somewhere else,--Niagara, Newfoundland, West Point, or the
Rocky Mountains," said Thorny, mentioning a few of the places he most
desired to see.

"Do you like him?" asked Ben, very naturally wondering if the new master
would approve of the young man-of-all-work.

"Don't I? George is regularly jolly; though now he's a minister, perhaps
he'll stiffen up and turn sober. Wont it be a shame if he does?" and
Thorny looked alarmed at the thought of losing his congenial friend.

"Tell about him; Miss Celia said you might," put in Bab, whose
experience of "jolly" ministers had been small.

"Oh, there isn't much about it. We met in Switzerland going up Mount St.
Bernard in a storm, and--"

"Where the good dogs live?" inquired Betty, hoping they would come into
the story.

"Yes; we spent the night up there, and George gave us his room; the
house was so full, and he wouldn't let me go down a steep place where I
wanted to, and Celia thought he'd saved my life, and was very good to
him. Then we kept meeting, and the first thing I knew she went and was
engaged to him. I didn't care, only she would come home so he might go
on studying hard and get through quick. That was a year ago, and last
winter we were in New York at uncle's; and then, in the spring, I was
sick, and we came here, and that's all."

"Shall you live here always when you come back?" asked Bab, as Thorny
paused for breath.

"Celia wants to. I shall go to college, so _I_ don't mind. George is
going to help the old minister here and see how he likes it. I'm to
study with him, and if he is as pleasant as he used to be we shall have
capital times,--see if we don't."

"I wonder if he will