loss of that hat was a blow, from which Isaac never had recovered.
Once at camp-meeting he laid it aside to pray his longest, most
impressive prayer, and an affectionate cow strayed up and licked the
nap all off before Isaac finished, so he never could wear it again.

Sally said: "I'll be switched if I'll have that disgusting creature
around stuffing himself on my wedding day; but if you're not in bed,
when it's all over, mother, I do wish you'd send Mandy and the children
a basket."

Mother promised, and father sat and looked on and pulled his lower lip
until his ears almost wiggled. Then Sally said she wanted Laddie and
Shelley to stand at the parlour door and keep it tight shut, and seat
every one in the sitting-room except a special list she had made out to
send in there. She wanted all our family and Peter's, and only a few
very close friends, but it was enough to fill the room. She said when
she and Peter came downstairs every one could see how they looked when
they crossed the sitting-room, and for all the difference the door
would make, it could be left open then; she would be walled in by
people she wanted around her, and the others could have the fun of
being there, seeing what they could, and getting all they wanted to
eat. Father and mother said that was all right, only to say nothing
about the plan to shut the door; but when the time came just to close
it and everything would be satisfactory.

Then Sally took the slate upstairs to copy the list with ink, so every
one went about something, while mother crossed to father and he took
her on his lap, and they looked at each other the longest and the
hardest, and neither of them said a word. After a while they cried and
laughed, and cried some more, and it was about as sensible as what a
flock of geese say when they are let out of the barn and start for the
meadow in the morning. Then father, all laughy and criey, said:
"Thank God! Oh, thank God, the girl loves the home we have made for
her!"

Just said it over and over, and mother kept putting in: "It pays,
Paul! It pays!"

Next day Sally put on her riding habit and fixed herself as pretty as
ever she could, and went around to have a last little visit with every
one, and invited them herself, and then she wrote letters to people
away. Elizabeth and Lucy came home, and every one began to work.
Father and mother went to the village in the carriage and brought home
the bed full of things to eat, a