, let him
now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace."

Craddock paused, and his piercing eyes searched the man and woman before
him.

"I require to charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day
of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that
if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined
together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it----"

Again he paused. The perspiration stood in beads on Jim's forehead, and
he glanced uneasily at Mary from the corners of his drooping eyes. A
smile was playing about her mouth, and Jim was cheered.

"For be ye well assured," the preacher continued, "that if any persons
are joined together otherwise than as God's Word doth allow, their
marriage is not lawful."

He turned with deliberation to Jim and transfixed him with the first
question of the ceremony. The groom was hypnotized into a state of
abject terror. His ears heard the words; the mind recorded but the
vaguest idea of what they meant.

"Wilt thou have this Woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after
God's ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her,
comfort her, honor, and keep her in sickness and in health; and,
forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall
live?"

Jim's mouth was open; his lower jaw had dropped in dazed awe, and he
continued to stare straight into the preacher's face until Mary pressed
his arm and whispered:

"Jim!"

"I will--yes, I will--you bet I will!" he hastened to answer.

The children giggled, and the preacher's lips twitched.

He turned quickly to Mary.

"Wilt thou have this Man to thy wedded husband, to live together after
God's ordinance, in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou obey him,
and serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and,
forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall
live?"

With quick, clear voice, Mary answered:

"I will."

"Please join your right hands and repeat after me:"

He fixed Jim with his gaze and spoke with deliberation, clause by
clause:

"I, James, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from
this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in
sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part,
according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth."

Jim's throat at first was husky with fear, but he caught each clause
w