s for the bride-cake,
it is one of Salemina's gifts, chosen as much in a spirit of fun
as affection. It is surely appropriate for this American wedding
transplanted to Scottish soil, and what should it be but a model, in
fairy icing, of Sir Walter's beautiful monument in Princes Street! Of
course Francesca is full of nonsensical quips about it, and says that
the Edinburgh jail would have been just as fine architecturally (it is,
in truth, a building beautiful enough to tempt an aesthete to crime),
and a much more fitting symbol for a wedding-cake, unless, indeed, she
adds, Salemina intends her gift to be a monument to my folly.

Pettybaw kirk is trimmed with yellow broom from these dear Scottish
banks and braes; and waving their green fans and plumes up and down
the aisle where I shall walk a bride, are tall ferns and bracken from
Crummylowe Glen, where we played ballads.

As I look back upon it, the life here has been all a ballad from first
to last. Like the elfin Tam Lin,

'The queen o' fairies she caught me
In this green hill to dwell,'

and these hasty nuptials are a fittingly romantic ending to the
summer's poetry. I am in a mood, were it necessary, to be 'ta'en by
the milk-white hand,' lifted to a pillion on a coal-black charger,
and spirited 'o'er the border an' awa'' by my dear Jock o' Hazeldean.
Unhappily, all is quite regular and aboveboard; no 'lord o' Langley
dale' contests the prize with the bridegroom, but the marriage is
at least unique and unconventional; no one can rob me of that sweet
consolation.

So 'gallop down the westlin skies,' dear Sun, but, prythee, gallop back
to-morrow! 'Gang soon to bed,' an you will, but rise again betimes! Give
me Queen's weather, dear Sun, and shine a benison upon my wedding-morn!

[Exit Penelope into the ballad-land of maiden dreams.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Penelope's Experiences in Scotland, by
Kate Douglas Wiggin

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PENELOPE'S EXPERIENCES IN SCOTLAND ***

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