n a sense, the victim of the
humour that used to run riot in Middle Georgia; for, in spite of her
individuality, which was vigorous and aggressive, she lost her own name
and her husband's too. At Margaret Rorick's wedding, or, rather, at the
infair, which was the feast after the wedding, Mr. Uriah Lazenby, whose
memory is kept green by his feats at tippling, and who combined fiddling
with farming, furnished the music for the occasion. Being something of a
privileged character, and having taken a thimbleful too much dram, as
fiddlers will do, the world over, Mr. Lazenby rose in his place, when
the company had been summoned to the feast, and remarked:

"Margaret Rorick, now that the thing's been gone and done, and can't be
holp, I nominate you Mrs. Absalom, an' Mrs. Absalom it shall be
herearter. Ab Goodlett, you ought to be mighty proud when you can fling
your bridle on a filly like that, an' lead her home jest for the bar'
sesso."

The loud laughter that followed placed the bride at a temporary
disadvantage. She joined in, however, and then exclaimed: "My goodness!
Old Uriah's drunk ag'in; you can't pull a stopper out'n a jug in the
same house wi' him but what he'll dribble at the mouth an' git shaky in
the legs."

But drunk or sober, Uriah had "nominated" Mrs. Absalom for good and all.
One reason why this "nomination" was seized on so eagerly was the sudden
change that had taken place in Miss Rorick's views in regard to
matrimony. She was more than thirty years old when she consented to
become Mrs. Absalom. Up to that time she had declared over and over
again that there wasn't a man in the world she'd look at, much less
marry.

Now, many a woman has said the same thing and changed her mind without
attracting attention; but Mrs. Absalom's views on matrimony, and her
pithy criticisms of the male sex in general, had flown about on the
wings of her humour, and, in that way, had come to have wide
advertisement. But her "nomination" interfered neither with her
individuality, nor with her ability to indulge in pithy comments on
matters and things in general. Of Mr. Lazenby, she said later: "What's
the use of choosin' betwixt a fool an' a fiddler, when you can git both
in the same package?"

She made no bad bargain when she married Mr. Goodlett. His irritability
was all on the surface. At bottom, he was the best-natured and most
patient of men--a philosopher who was so thoroughly contented with the
ways of the world and