r word she walked forward, her arm drawing him on, Virgie
following, and her father bringing up the rear. Samson Hat, feeling
uneasy at being awarded no part in the ceremony, slipped up the aisle as
far as the big, stiff-aproned stove in the middle of the church, behind
which he ducked his body, but kept his head and faculties in the centre
of the events.

Mr. Tilghman had preceded them in his surplice, and taking his place at
the altar, with his countenance pale as death, he read the exordium in
an altered voice: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here, and in
the face of this company, to join together this man and this woman in
holy matrimony."

"What 'company' is here?" thought Vesta. "Not alone these poor negroes
and my father; no, I feel behind me, looking on, the generations of our
pride and helpless ease, the worthy younger suitors I have been too
exacting and particular to see the consideration and merits of, the
golden hours I might have improved my mind in, with brilliant
opportunities I was not jealous of, and which will be mine no more,
because I had not trimmed my virgin lamp; and so I slept away my
girlhood, till now I awaken at the cry, 'The bridegroom cometh,' and I
behold! Yes, I have been a foolish virgin, and am surprised when my fate
is here! Perhaps my guardian angel also stands behind me, the cross
advanced that I must take, my crown concealed; but somewhere, midway of
this journey of life, she may give it to me, and say, 'Well done!'"

"This 'company,'" thought Milburn, with swimming head, "gathered to see
me marry! what company? I seem to feel, besides these negroes, my sole
spectators, the populous forest peering on, the barefoot generations,
the illiterate broods, the instinctive parents, the sandy graves. They
give forth my lost tribe, and all cry at me, 'Go, leave us, proud one!
despiser, go!' Yet there is one I see, pure as my bride, white as my
captive's bosom, her soul all in her believing eyes, and saying, 'Oh, my
son, it is a woman like me that has come into your life, and her heart
is very tender, and, by your mother's dying love! be kind to the poor
stranger you have bought.'"

He answered, "I will!" aloud, and it seemed almost a miraculous
coincidence that it was a response to the minister's question, till he
heard the corresponding inquiry put to his bride in the clergyman's low,
but gentlest, tones:

"Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honor, and keep him, in
sick