JIM GETS MARRIED, THE NEW HOTEL RECEIVES ITS MISTRESS, AND
BENEDICT CONFERS A POWER OF ATTORNEY.

There was great commotion in the little Sevenoaks tavern. It was Jim's
wedding morning, and on the previous evening there had been a sufficient
number of arrivals to fill every room. Mr. and Mrs. Balfour, with the
two boys, had come in in the evening stage; Jim and Mr. Benedict had
arrived from Number Nine. Friends of Miss Butterworth from adjoining
towns had come, so as to be ready for the ceremony of the morning.
Villagers had thronged the noisy bar-room until midnight, scanning and
discussing the strangers, and speculating upon the event which had
called them together. Jim had moved among them, smiling, and returning
their good-natured badinage with imperturbable coolness, so far as
appearances went, though he acknowledged to Mr. Balfour that he felt
very much as he did about his first moose.

"I took a good aim," said he, "restin' acrost a stump, but the stump was
oneasy like; an' then I blazed away, an' when I obsarved the moose
sprawlin', I was twenty feet up a tree, with my gun in the snow; an' if
they don't find me settin' on the parson's chimbly about nine o'clock
to-morrer mornin', it won't be on account o' my not bein' skeered."

But the wedding morning had arrived. Jim had had an uneasy night, with
imperfect sleep and preposterous dreams. He had been pursuing game.
Sometimes it was a bear that attracted his chase, sometimes it was a
deer, sometimes it was a moose, but all the time it was Miss
Butterworth, flying and looking back, with robes and ribbons vanishing
among the distant trees, until he shot and killed her, and then he woke
in a great convulsion of despair, to hear the singing of the early
birds, and to the realization of the fact that his days of bachelor life
were counted.

Mr. Benedict, with his restored boy in his arms, occupied the room next
to his, a door opening between them. Both were awake, and were busy with
their whispered confidences, when they became aware that Jim was roused
and on his feet. In a huge bundle on the table lay Jim's wedding
garments, which he eyed from time to time as he busied himself at his
bath.

"Won't ye be a purty bird with them feathers on! This makin' crows into
bobolinks'll do for oncet, but, my! won't them things spin when I git
into the woods agin?"

Benedict and Harry knew Jim's habit, and the measure of excitement that
was upon him, and lay still, expec