m, it
gave general satisfaction. All the people of North End, except the aged,
infirm and infantile, were trooping down the valley, on the rough road
between the foot of the West Ridge and the side of the river, to a fete
to be given them at Rockhold on the occasion of the marriage of old
Aaron Rockharrt's granddaughter, Corona Haught, to Regulas Rothsay, the
governor-elect of the State.

It was a marriage of very rare interest to the workmen and their
families. To the men, because the governor-elect had been one of their
own class. The elders remembered him from the time when he was a
friendless orphan child, glad to run the longest errand or do the
hardest day's work for a dime, but also a very independent little
fellow, who would take nothing in the shape of alms from anybody. To the
women, because he was going to marry his first and only sweetheart, and
on the very day before his inauguration, so that she might take part in
the pageantry that was to be his first great success and triumph.

On one side of the river, at the foot of the East Ridge, stood Rockhold,
the country seat of the Rockharrts, in its own park, which lay between
the mountain and the river. The house itself was a large, heavy, oblong
building of gray stone, two stories high, with cellar and garret. From
the front of the house to the edge of the river extended a fair green
lawn, shaded here and there by great forest trees. Under many of these
trees, tables with refreshments were set, and seats were placed for the
accommodation and refreshment of the out-door guests. In sunny spots,
also, some white tents were raised and decorated with flags.

As a group of working men and women sat on the west bank of the river,
waiting impatiently for the return of the ferryboat, they saw, from
minute to minute, carriages drive up the lawn avenue, discharge the
occupants at the main entrance of the house, and then roll off to the
stable yard in the rear.

These seemed to come in a slow procession.

"Only the nearest relations and most intimate friends of the family are
invited to the ceremony. There have only been five carriages passed
since we have been sitting here, and I don't believe there was one come
before we came, or that there'll be another come after that last one,
which was certainly the groom's," said Old Marwig.

"Oh! was it, indeed? But how do you know?" demanded Mrs. Bounce.

"It is the new carriage from North End Hotel! And he and his groomsm