there's goin' to be a weddin' take place right here in
the main tent inside of fifteen minutes. Whoop-e-e!" I yells. "Sadie's
said she would!"

That's the way we did it, too; and for a short notice affair, it was
done in style; even to a weddin' march that someone feeds into the
pianola and sets goin'. Pinckney digs up a ring, and the bishop gives us
the nicest little off-hand talk you ever listens to. I blushes, and
Sadie blushes, and Mrs. Twombley-Crane hugs both of us when it's over.
Then I has the steward lug up a lot of cold bottles and I breaks a ten
year drouth with a whole glass of fizz water.

Right in the middle of the toast the sailin' master shows up on the
stairs and says: "We're just makin' the harbor, sir."

"Forget it, Bassett," says I. "I want you to drink to the health of Mrs.
McCabe."

And when he hears what's been goin' on, he's the most flabbergasted
sailor man I ever saw. After that we all has to go up and take a look
at Newport and the warships, but they was all as black and quiet as a
side street in Brooklyn after ten o'clock.

"Say, it's a shame all them folks ain't in on this," says I. "Bassett,
can't you make a little noise, just to let 'em know we're celebratin'?"

Bassett thought he could. He hadn't made any mistake, either. In two
shakes we had all the lights aboard turned on, and skyrockets whizzin'
up as fast as they could be touched off.

Did we wake up them warships? Well, rather. First we hears a lot of
dinner gongs goin' off. Then colored lanterns was sent up, whistles
blew, bugles bugled, and inside of three minutes by the watch there was
guns bang-bangin' away like it was the Fourth of July.

"Great Scott!" says Pinckney, "I never knew before that the United
States navy would turn out in the middle of the night to salute a
private yacht."

"It depends on who owns the yacht. Eh, Sadie?" says I.

By the time the guns got through bangin' we had a dozen search-lights
turned on us, and a strong lunged gent on the nearest warship was
yellin' things at us through a megaphone.

"He wants to know, sir," says Bassett, "if we've got the Secretary of
the Navy on board."

"Tell him not guilty," says I, and Bassett did.

That didn't satisfy Mr. Officer though. "Then why in thunder," says he,
"do you make such a fuss coming into the harbor at this time of night?"

"Because I've just been gettin' married," says I, in my Bosco voice.

"And who the blazes are you?" says he.

"Can