r distresses. He maketh
the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad
because they be quiet, so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful
works to the children of men!"

* * * * *

When all had left the old kitchen, James and Diana sat by the yet glowing
hearth and listened to the crickets, and talked over all the past and the
future.

"And now," said James, "it's seven years since I left you, and to-morrow
is the seventh Thanksgiving, and I've always set my heart on getting home
to be married Thanksgiving evening."

"But, dear me, Jim, we can't. There isn't time."

"Why not?--we've got all the time there is!"

"But the wedding-dress can't be made, possibly."

"Oh, that can wait till the week after. You are pretty enough without
it!"

"But what will they all say?"

"Who cares what they say? I don't," said James. "The fact is, I've set my
heart on it, and you owe me something for the way you treated me the last
Thanksgiving I was here, seven years ago. Now don't you?"

"Well, yes, I do, so have it just as you will." And so it was accomplished
the next evening.

And among the wonders of Mapleton Miss Briskett announced it as chief,
that it was the first time she ever heard of a bride that was married
first and had her wedding-dress made the week after! She never had heard
of such a thing.

Yet, strange to say, for years after neither of the parties concerned
found themselves a bit the worse for it.

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS OF NEW ENGLAND.

The shores of the Atlantic coast of America may well be a terror to
navigators. They present an inexorable wall, against which forbidding and
angry waves incessantly dash, and around which shifting winds continually
rave. The approaches to safe harbors are few in number, intricate and
difficult, requiring the skill of practiced pilots.

But, as if with a pitying spirit of hospitality, old Cape Cod, breaking
from the iron line of the coast, like a generous-hearted sailor intent on
helpfulness, stretches an hundred miles outward, and, curving his
sheltering arms in a protective circle, gives a noble harborage. Of this
harbor of Cape Cod the report of our governmental Coast Survey thus
speaks: "It is one of the finest harbors for ships of war on the whole of
our Atlantic coast. The width and freedom from obstruction of every kind
at