n
for a minister.

Small scouts had been sent out to watch, where the road from the beach
winds into the main road, and when word was brought back that "Mark had
gone by," the Wallencampers proceeded to make all due preparations; and
soon might have been seen winding in a body towards the scene of
interest.

The small paraphernalia of invitations and wedding cards were unknown in
Wallencamp. The Wallencampers would have considered that there was little
virtue in a ceremony of any sort, performed without the sanction and
approval of their united presence.

In regard to the particular nature of this entertainment, there was some
snickering in the corners of the room, but the general aspect was
funereal.

The season during which, with Lovell at one end of the room, and the
bride at the other, we sat waiting the arrival of the minister, was as
solemn as anything I had ever known.

I made a congratulatory remark, in a low tone, to Mrs. Barlow, who sat at
my side with her hands clasped gazing first at Lovell and then at the
bride; but I was forced to experience the uncomfortable sensation of one
who has inadvertently spoken out loud in meeting. No one said anything.

The helpless snicker which started occasionally from Harvey Dole's
corner, and was echoed faintly from other quarters of the room, only
heightened, by, contrast, the effect of the succeeding gloom.

The bride was perfectly composed, with a high, natural color in her
cheeks, and an air of being duly impressed with the importance of the
occasion.

She had assumed a large white bonnet, though I do not think that she and
Lovell took so much as a stroll to the beach after the ceremony--and her
plump and shapely hands were encased in a pair of green kid gloves. She
gazed thoughtfully, at each occupant of the room in turn, not omitting
Lovell, who never once stirred or lifted his eyes.

Mr. William Barlow was silently passing the water, when Brother Mark
arrived with the minister.

That grave dignitary advanced with measured tread to a small stand,
draped with a long white sheet, that had been prepared for him in the
centre of the room.

He took off his gloves, and folded them; he took off his overcoat, and
laid it on the back of a chair; and if he had then reached down into his
pockets and taken out a rope, and proceeded to adjust a hanging-noose,
his audience could not have shown a more ghastly and breathless interest
in his performance.

"Will the pa