ing, and dying. They sometimes marry! Let
us look in at this little church where, as a passer-by remarks,
"_something_ appears to be going on."

A tall handsome young man leads to the altar a delicate, beautiful,
blooming bride, whose bent head and blushing cheek, and modest mien and
dependent air, contrast pleasantly with the gladsome firm countenance,
stalwart frame, and self-reliant aspect of the bridegroom.

Looking at them as they stood then, no one could have entertained for a
moment the idea that these two had ever united in the desperate and
strenuous attempt to put out a fire! Yet so it was. They had, once
upon a time, devoted themselves to the extinction of a fire in a
cupboard with such enthusiasm that they had been successful not only in
putting that fire out, but in lighting another fire, which nothing short
of union for life could extinguish!

Joe Dashwood gave away the bride, and he could not help remarking in a
whisper to the Bloater, (who was also there in sumptuous attire), that
if ever a man was the born image of his father that man was Fred
Crashington--an opinion which was heartily responded to by Mrs Maggie
Crashington, who, then in the period of life which is described as "fat,
fair, and forty," looked on at the proceedings with intense
satisfaction. Mary Dashwood--also fat, fair, and forty--was there too,
and if ever a woman congratulated herself on a rosebud having grown into
a full blown blush-rose, that woman was Mary.

Besides a pretty large company of well-dressed people, with white
favours in their breasts, there was a sprinkling of active men with
sailor-like caps, who hung about the outskirts of the crowd, and among
these were two or three stout fellows with brass helmets and dirty hands
and faces, and wet garments, who had returned from a recent fire, just
in time to take a look at their comrade and his fair bride.

"Poor Ned, how his kind heart would have rejoiced to see this day!"
murmured Joe, brushing his cheek hastily as he retired from the altar.

So, the wedding party left the church, and the firemen returned to their
posts of watchfulness and duty.

About the same period that this wedding took place, there was another
wedding in the great metropolis to which we would draw the reader's
attention. Not that it was a great one or a splendid one; on the
contrary, if it was marked by any unusual peculiarities, these were
shabbiness and poverty. The wedding party consisted