with the days of preparation
for Mary's wedding flying past. It had been set for the Christmas
holidays when the boys would be home, and Annie Brown, who was the
neighbourhood dressmaker, spent almost all her days at the Lindsays
now, for Allister's cheque had bought many yards of silk and lace and
Mary must be as fine as possible to go away and live in a house in town
and be dressed up every afternoon of her life.

Christmas came with a rush on snow laden wings, and the boys came home
and the old house was filled with noise and laughter. Sandy could not
do enough for Christina, he followed her about, that she might not so
much as lift a pail of water without his assistance, for he was always
keenly conscious of all she was doing for him, and his conduct made
Christina far happier than a college course could possibly make any
human being. And then came the wedding before anybody was really
ready, as weddings always do, with all the MacGillivrays from Port
Stewart and all the McDonald relations from Glenoro. And then suddenly
it was all over and Sandy and Neil were gone back to Toronto and Jimmie
to Algonquin; and Christina awoke to the astonishing and dismaying fact
that Mary had left them and gone far away to live in a home of her own.
This last fact dwarfed all others and threw even Sandy's absence into
lighter gloom.

Early in the Winter she paid a short visit to Mary's new home in Port
Stewart. It was a wonderful place, with slippery hardwood floors that
had to be polished instead of scrubbed, and shiny new furniture, and
electric lights all over--you could press a little button in the hall
at the front door and the light would flash up in the cellar; and hot
water upstairs in the bathroom; and a telephone that rang your own
number only, and through which no one could overhear what you were
saying; and a piano, and Mary taking music lessons, and she a married
woman! All these wonders had to be shouted again and again to Grandpa
on Christina's return, and he always ended the recital by clapping her
on the back and declaring,--

"Och, och, indeed, and it is our own electric light that will be back
again, and it will jist be darkness when she is away."

If Christina came home filled with the wonder of Mary's new house she
was secretly much more impressed with the wonder of Mary's new life.
Surely it was having all your dreams come true to be married to a
handsome man who adored you and go to live with him in