give Barbie the full penalty; none o' your squires
for him, nothin' but Friar Tuck, who was one o' these here Episcolopian
preachers what sport a full regalia an' a book o' tactics calculated to
meet any complication a human bein' is apt to veer into. Some say
they're just Roman Catholics, gone Republican, an' some say that
they're the ones who started the first strike--I don't know much about
it myself.

He hadn't arrived by seven o'clock, but we didn't worry none; he might
have had to come fifty miles, an' he never had any time to waste.

We'd had a sort o' light supper at four o'clock, an' it was intended to
have the weddin' feast after the performance was finished. It was just
eight o'clock when Friar Tuck swung off his pony an' as many of the
crowd as could gathered in the big dinin' room an' waited for the words
to be said. Spidier Kelley came an' told me that he had locked the
woman in the office, an' that she was behavin' herself reasonable, so I
knew 'at the finish wasn't far off. The tables an' chairs had been
taken out, the intention bein' to dance in the store-room after the
ceremony, an' while the dancin' was goin' on to set the banquet in the
dinin' room. Oh, it was all planned out like a theater show: Jabez had
a full orchestra too, three fiddlers, a guitarist, an' a fifer; an'
they began to play solemn music, like they allus do at a wedding. It's
a toss-up which is the most touchin', a weddin' or a funeral,--a
feller's takin' a mighty long shot at either one.

The whole crowd was on edge, but myself was strained to the breakin'
point. Just as the old clock struck the half hour the orchestra pealed
forth a march, an' they all came struttin' in, slow an' stately an'
top-heavy, accordin' to the city way. Jabez was in a brand-new suit o'
black store clothes, an' had a mighty proud look on his face; he was
wearin' gloves too. Barbie was a-leanin' on his arm, an' she was
wearin' a dress 'at would 'a' made some o' the queens crane their necks
a bit, I reckon. Hawthorn had his nerve with him, an' wore a low-necked
vest an' a droop-tailed coat. I had my own rig like this hid away in
the stallion stable; so it didn't jar me none; but some o' the boys had
a hard time chokin' back their grins. It was the first weddin' I had
ever seen where the groom hadn't wore a silk handkerchief around his
neck.

They all met in front o' Friar Tuck, who was standin' under a tissha
paper bell with about four miles o' ribbon tie