mighty. Lord! as if I didn't know what
she sprung from; but that's the way with them as was born to nothin'.
May Jane, if I ever catch you puttin' on airs 'cause you're a Peterkin,
I b'lieve I'll kill you!'

After this, anything like familiar intercourse ceased between the heads
of the two families until the morning after Christmas day, when Frank
and Dolly drove over to Le Bateau, where were assembled the same people
who had been present at Jerrie's wedding, and where Peterkin insisted
upon darkening the rooms and lighting the gas, as something a little out
of the usual order of things in Shannondale. Peterkin was very happy,
and very proud of this alliance with the Tracy, and his pride and
happiness shone in his face all through the ceremony; and when the
clergyman asked, 'Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?' his
manner was something grand to see as he stepped forward and responded,
'I do, sir,' in a voice so loud and full of importance that Dolly
involuntarily groaned, while Tom found it hard to refrain from laughing.

Tom behaved very well, and kissed his bride before any one else had a
chance to do so, and called May Jane mother and Peterkin father, after
he saw the papers which made Ann Eliza own in her own right a million
dollars; and when, an hour later, she handed over to him as his own, a
deed of property valued at one hundred thousand dollars, he took her in
his arms and kissed her again, telling her what was very true, that she
was worth her weight in gold. Tom had felt his poverty keenly, and all
the more so that Ann Eliza's engagement-ring, a superb solitaire, had
actually been bought with her father's gift, as had their passage
tickets to Europe. But now he was a rich man, made so by his wife's
thoughtful generosity, and he was conscious of a new set of feelings and
emotions with regard to her, and inwardly vowed that, so far as in him
lay, he would make her happy.

They took the train for New York that afternoon, accompanied by
Peterkin, who, when the ship sailed away next day, stood upon the wharf
waving his hands and calling out as long as they could hear him, 'God
bless you, my children! God bless you, my children!' Then he went back
to Shannondale and called at Tracy Park, and reported to Frank, the only
one he saw, that the youngsters had gone, and that Mrs. Thomas Tracy
looked as well as the best on 'em in the ship, and a darned sight better
than some!

After this the great houses