; and Gertrude Merryweather, sitting on the floor, with her hands
clasped around her knees, began her "tell."

[Illustration: THE GRAND TELL IN THE OWL'S NEST.]

CHAPTER VII.

WEDDING BELLS.

"To begin with, girls, this is Fluffy's idea, not mine! Of course none
of you ever saw our Hildegarde, so I didn't suppose you would care
particularly; but when I was telling the Fluffy last night, she said it
was selfish and all kinds of things to keep it to ourselves, and that
you must all hear about it; so if you don't find it interesting, pull
out the Fluffy's feathers, not mine.

"Hildegarde Grahame--she is Hildegarde Merryweather now, but I cannot
realise it yet--has been a very dear friend of ours for several years.
We think there is no one like her in the world; I'll show you a picture
of her by and by. Well, a year ago she became engaged to my uncle."

"Your uncle!" cried the girls. "Why, I thought she was a girl!"

"So she is a girl, but Roger--well, he is my uncle, but he isn't so very
much older than I am. That is--he is twenty-five, and Hildegarde is
twenty; so you see it is just exactly right. There isn't anybody like
him, either. He is as near an angel as a man can come and be alive; and
he is tremendously clever, really eminent already in his profession, and
we all love him to distraction."

"Is he handsome?" asked Viola Vincent.

"I don't know; yes, I think he is. Not a barber-shop beauty, though. He
is tall, and very strong, broad-shouldered, with the kindest eyes in the
world, and a smile that makes you crinkle all over with pleasure. Well,
and so they were engaged, and now they are married; the wedding was on
Wednesday, and this is Friday, and here I am. Now I'll begin at the very
beginning of the day. Of course we woke up early, and looked out of the
window; and it was all gray and cloudy. I thought it was going to rain,
and I was in the depths, but Bell--you know Bell, my sister, at
college--was sure it would clear before seven, and so it did. The sun
came out bright and clear, and soon we saw that it was going to be the
most beautiful day that ever was. We had been out in the fields all day
before, getting flowers, and we had them all ready in tubs and bowls and
pitchers; so after breakfast we could go right to work on the
decorations. We did the church first. It is a pretty stone church, with
a good deep chancel. We filled in the back of the chancel with great
ferns--mostly evergreen ferns,