ed remnant. They had left at once for home,
and their shortest route lay through Litchfield. Night was near when
they reached the town, but they must needs stop to get one glimpse of
Sylvy and tidings from home, for fear lay upon them lest there might
be trouble there which they knew not of. So they burst in upon the
wedding. But Master Loomis began to look uneasy. Old Dorcas had
slipped out, to save the imperilled dinner, and Pokey, the maid (_nee_
Pocahontas!) could be heard clinking glass and silver and pushing
about chairs; but the happy family were still absorbed in each other.

"Mister Everett!" said the madam, with dignity, and the little
minister trotted rapturously over to her chair to receive certain low
orders.

"Yes, verily, yes--h-m! A--my friends, we are assembled in this place
this evening--"

A sharp look from madam recalled him to the fact that this was not a
prayer-meeting.

"A--that is--yes, of a truth our purpose this afternoon was to--"

"That's so!" energetically put in Captain John. "Right about face!
Form!" and the three Continentals sprung to their feet and assumed
their position, while Sylvy and Master Loomis resumed theirs, a
flitting smile in Sylvia's tearful eyes making a very rainbow.

So the ceremony proceeded to the end, and was wound up with a short
prayer, concerning which Captain Perkins irreverently remarked to his
wife some days after:

"Parson smelt the turkey, sure as shootin', Hannah. He shortened up so
'mazin' quick on that prayer. I tell you I was glad on't. I knew how
he felt. I could ha' ate a wolf myself."

Then they all moved in to the dinner table--a strange group, from
Sylvia's satin and pearls to the ragged fatigue-dress of her father
and brothers; but there was no help for that now, and really it
troubled nobody. The shade of anxiety in madam's eye was caused only
by a doubt as to the sufficiency of her supplies for three unexpected
and ravenous guests; but a look at the mighty turkey, the crisp roast
pig, the cold ham, the chicken pie, and the piles of smoking
vegetables, with a long vista of various pastries, apples, nuts, and
pitchers of cider on the buffet, and an inner consciousness of a big
Indian pudding, for twenty-four hours simmering in the pot over the
fire, reassured her, and perhaps heartened up the parson, for after a
long grace he still kept his feet and added, with a kindly smile:

"Brethren and friends, you are heartily welcome. Eat and be gla