pranced before each other, stepping high,
like thoroughbred horses, they slapped the floor with first one foot,
then the other, they reeled, they twirled, they shuffled and
double-shuffled, and pounded the floor, as though they would fain tramp
their way through to Kirsty's new cellar; while, in his efforts to keep
pace with them, the fiddler nearly sawed his instrument asunder.

But just when they were in the midst of the most intricate part of the
gyrations, the spirit of the dance seized the spectators, and the next
moment the performers were engulfed in the whirl of the oncoming flood.

But Roarin' Sandy's Archie was not the sort to lose his identity in the
vulgar throng. He was the most famous "caller-off" in the township of
Oro, as everyone knew; and staggering out of the maelstrom, he seized
Betty Lauchie and was soon in the midst of his double task, his face
set and tense, for it was no easy matter to manage one's own feet and
at the same time guide the reckless movements of some twenty heedless
and bouncing couples who acted as though a dance was an affair of no
moment whatever.

Scotty did not remain for the dance, but accompanied his uncle home.
He wanted to be alone to think over the wonderful events of the day and
of the joys of the morrow. There were not many youths who followed his
example. When the dance broke up the majority of them merely retired
to the edge of the clearing to return half an hour later armed with
guns, horns, tin pans, old saws from the mill, and all other implements
warranted to produce an uproar and annihilate peace. With these they
proceeded to make the night hideous by serenading the bridal pair until
the late autumn dawn chased them to the cover of the woods. This last
festivity gave no offence, however, being quite in accordance with the
custom of the country and the expectations of the bride and groom.

And so Weaver Jimmie's wedding passed off just as, through the long
years of waiting, he had dreamed it would; and one young man, who had
been a guest at their marriage feast, entered that day upon a new life,
as surely as did the bride and groom.

XII

A WELL-MEANT PLOT

O, Love will build his lily walls,
And Love his pearly roof will rear,--
On cloud or land, or mist or sea--
Love's solid land is everywhere!
--ISABELLE VALANCY CRAWFORD.

The minister and his wife had been on a pastoral visitation to the Oa,
and, having had an early tea