bravely, "I do--that is, me and Shadrach." But no one laughed,
because Zoeth himself was trying to smile and making rather wet weather
of it. As for the Captain, his expression during the ceremony was a
sort of fixed grin which he had assumed before entering the room and had
evidently determined to wear to the finish, no matter what his emotions
might be. But Miss Pease, always susceptible, had a delightful cry all
to herself, and Isaiah, retiring to the hall, blew his nose with a vigor
which, as Captain Shad said afterwards, "had the Pollack Rip foghorn
soundin' like a deef and dumb sign."

Mary had managed everything, of course. Her uncles had tried to
remonstrate with her, telling her there were plenty of others to arrange
the flowers and attend to what the local newspaper would, in its account
of the affair, be sure to call the "collation," and to make the hundred
and one preparations necessary for even so small and simple a wedding as
this. But she only laughed at their remonstrances.

"I wouldn't miss it for anything," she said. "I have always wanted to
manage someone's wedding and I am certainly not going to let anyone else
manage mine. I don't care a bit whether it is the proper thing or not.
This isn't going to be a formal affair; I won't have it so. Uncle Shad,
if you want to say 'Jumpin' fire' when Crawford drops the ring, as he is
almost sure to do, you have my permission."

But Crawford did not drop the ring, and so the Captain's favorite
exclamation was not uttered, being unnecessary. In fact there were no
mishaps, everything went exactly as it should, reception and "collation"
included, and, to quote from the South Harniss local once more, "A good
time was had by all."

And when the bride and groom, dressed in their traveling costumes, came
down the stairs to the carriage which was to take them to the station,
Mary ran back, amid the shower of rice and confetti, to kiss Uncle Zoeth
and Uncle Shad once more and whisper in their ears not to feel that she
had really gone, because she hadn't but would be back in just a little
while.

"And I have told Isaiah about your rubbers and oilskins when it rains,"
she added, in Shadrach's ear, "and he is not to forget Uncle Zoeth's
medicine. Good-by. Good-by. Don't be lonesome. Promise that you won't."

But to promise is easy and to keep that promise is often hard, as
Shadrach observed when he and Zoeth were alone in the sitting-room that
evening. "I feel as if