ll the
other weddings, and the bride looking tired to death, and nobody enjoying
it a bit. I'd like mine to be different, and more--more--real. I don't
want any show or processing about, but just to have things nice and
pretty, and all the people I love and who love me to come to it, and
nothing cut and dried, and nobody tired, and to make it a sort of dear,
loving occasion, with leisure to realize how dear it is and what it all
means. Don't you think it would really be nicer in that way?"

"Well, yes, as you put it, and 'viewed from the higher standard,' as Miss
Inches would say, perhaps it would. Still, bridesmaids and all that are
very pretty to look at; and folks will be surprised if you don't have
them."

"Never mind folks," remarked the irreverent Katy. "I don't care a button
for that argument. Yes; bridesmaids and going up the aisle in a long
procession and all the rest _are_ pretty to look at,--or were before they
got to be so hackneyed. I can imagine the first bridal procession up the
aisle of some early cathedral as having been perfectly beautiful. But
nowadays, when the butcher and baker and candlestick-maker and everybody
else do it just alike, the custom seems to me to have lost its charm. I
never did enjoy having things exactly as every one else has them,--all
going in the same direction like a flock of sheep. I would like my little
wedding to be something especially my own. There was a poetical meaning in
those old customs; but now that the custom has swallowed up so much of
the meaning, it would please me better to retain the meaning and drop the
custom."

"I see what you mean," said Clover, not quite convinced, but inclined as
usual to admire Katy and think that whatever she meant must be right. "But
tell me a little more. You mean to have a wedding-dress, don't you?"
doubtfully.

"Yes, indeed!"

"Have you thought what it shall be?"

"Do you recollect that beautiful white crape shawl of mamma's which papa
gave me two years ago? It has a lovely wreath of embroidery round it; and
it came to me the other day that it would make a charming gown, with white
surah or something for the under-dress. I should like that better than
anything new, because mamma used to wear it, and it would seem as if she
were here still, helping me to get ready. Don't you think so?"

"It is a lovely idea," said Clover, the ever-ready tears dimming her happy
blue eyes for a moment, "and just like you. Yes, that shall be the