e way to the porch."

"That was a brave while ago, Uncle."

"Iss, iss; but I mind to this hour how we bearers perspired--an' she
such a light-weight corpse. But plague seize my old emotions!--we'm
come to marry, not to bury."

"By the look o't 'tis' neither marry nor bury, Nim nor Doll," observed
Old Zeb, who had sacrificed his paternal feelings and come to church in
order to keep abreast with the age; "'tis more like Boscastle Fair,
begin at twelve o'clock an' end at noon. Why tarry the wheels of his
chariot?"

"'Tis possible Young Zeb an' he have a-met 'pon the road hither,"
hazarded Calvin Oke by a wonderful imaginative effort; "an' 'tis
possible that feelings have broke loose an' one o' the twain be
swelterin' in his own bloodshed, or vicey-versey."

"I heard tell of a man once," said Uncle Issy, "that committed murder
upon another for love; but, save my life, I can't think 'pon his name,
nor where 't befell."

"What an old store-house 'tis!" ejaculated Elias Sweetland, bending a
contemplative gaze on Uncle Issy.

"Mark her pale face, naybours," put in a woman; "an' Tresidder, he looks
like a man that's neither got nor lost."

"Trew, trew."

"Quarter past the hour, I make it," said Old Zeb, pulling out his
timepiece.

Still the bridegroom tarried.

Higher up the church, in the front pew but one, Modesty Prowse said
aloud to Sarah Ann Nan Julian--

"If he doesn' look sharp, we'll be married before she after all."

Ruby heard the sneer, and answered it with a look of concentrated spite.
Probably she would have risked her dignity to retort, had not Parson
Babbage advanced down the chancel at this juncture.

"Has anyone seen the bridegroom to-day?" he inquired of Tresidder.
"Or will you send some one to hurry him?"

"Be danged if I know," the farmer began testily, mopping his bald head,
and then he broke off, catching sound of a stir among the folk behind.

"Here he be--here he be at last!" cried somebody. And with that a hush
of bewilderment fell on the congregation.

In the doorway, flushed with running and glorious in bridal attire,
stood Young Zeb.

It took everybody's breath away, and he walked up the nave between
silent men and women. His eyes were fastened on Ruby, and she in turn
stared at him as a rabbit at a snake, shrinking slightly on her father's
arm. Tresidder's jaw dropped, and his eyes began to protrude.

"What's the meanin' o' this?" he stammered.

"I've come to marry you