d by all to be unnecessary,
and all the more so that the double wedding-day was to be celebrated as
a species of public event.

The romance connected with the previous life of Dick, and especially his
singular and unexpected return to his first love, created quite a
sensation, even in a region in which wild deeds and wonderful events
were so common that it required a man to be a real hero to enable him to
rise conspicuous above his fellows. Many trappers came in from a
considerable distance to take part in the rejoicings of that day, and
from the dance which followed the ceremony there was not absent a living
creature belonging to the settlement.

Every dog was there, of course, adding its vocal melody to the dulcet
tones of the blacksmith's violin. Even the cats of the settlement were
present, including that celebrated kitten which had been reduced to a
state of drivelling imbecility by the furious advent of the Wild Man.
Owls and other sagacious birds also came from afar to see the fun,
attracted by the light of the fire; for the ballroom was the green sward
of the forest, which was illuminated for the occasion by a bonfire that
would have roasted a megatherium whole, and also would have furnished
accommodation for a pot large enough to boil an elephant. Don't think,
reader, in the vanity of your heart, that you have conceived that fire!
You have not, as a Yankee would say, the most distant conception of the
small end of a notion of what it was! A hundred brawny arms, accustomed
to wield the broad axe, had lent their aid to rear the mighty pile and
feed the ravening flame.

It was kindled on a wide level plot in the outskirts of the settlement,
around which the trees spread their sheltering arms. On a plank raised
on two casks sat the blacksmith with his fiddle. The carpenter sat
beside him with a kettledrum, more literally a kettledrum even than the
real thing, for that drum _was_ a kettle! On a little mound that rose
in the centre of the plot sat, in state, Dick and Mary, March and the
vision in leather, their respective thrones being empty flour-casks.
Around them danced the youth and beauty of the settlement. These were
enclosed by a dense circle, composed of patriarchal, middle-aged, and
extremely juvenile admirers. The background of the picture was filled
up with the monstrous fire which saturated that spot in the forest with
light--bright as the broadest day. The extreme foreground was composed
of