e, only Job lost his patience, and
cried, and for five minutes there was a perfect Bedlam of baby-screams,
chopping-knives, and mortar-pestles, and in the midst of it, the sound
of the hired men winnowing grain in the barn.

But there could hardly be too much noise for Patty. I presume she was
never happier in her life than on the Monday and Tuesday before
Thanksgiving; but Wednesday came, and it rained in torrents.

"Will they be married if it doesn't clear off?" said she.

"You do ask the funniest questions," replied Rachel. "Just as if Mr.
Starbird would stay away from his own wedding on account of the
weather!"

It rained all night; but Thursday morning the sun came rushing through
the clouds, his face all aglow with smiles, and put an end to such
dismal business. Patty looked out of the window, and watched the clouds
scampering away to hide, and whispered in her heart to the little birds
that were left in the maple trees,--

"How kind God is to give us a good wedding-day!"

About ten o'clock the guests began to come, and among the first was Mr.
Starbird. Patty had never seen him look so fine as he did when he stood
up with her dear sister Dorcas to be married. He wore a blue coat, and a
beautiful ruffled shirt, and his shoe-buckles--so Moses said--were of
solid silver. Why he needed gloves in the house, Patty could not
imagine; but there they were on his hands,--white kids at that.

Dorcas was quite as fine as the bridegroom. She had no veil, but her
high-topped comb sat on her head like a crown, and there was a
wonderfully rich stomacher of embroidered lace in the neck of her dress.
Such a dress! It shimmered in the sun like a dove's wings, for it was of
changeable silk, the costliest affair, Patty thought, that a bride ever
wore. It was fastened at the back like a little girl's frock, and the
waist was no longer than the waist of a baby's slip.

Patty took great pride in looking at her beautiful sister, from the top
of her shell comb to the tips of her white slippers, which were just the
size of Patty's own.

The ceremony was as long as a common sermon; and it would have been
longer yet, if Elder Lovejoy had been there to perform it. He was sick,
and this man, who came in his place, did not speak in a sing-song tone;
Patty was not sure it was quite right to do without that. He was young
and diffident. Patty knew he trembled, for she could see his coat-flaps
shake; and she can see them shake now, every t