t father said mother acted just like that,
even when her sons were married at other people's houses; and if she
kept on getting worse, every girl she married off, by the time she
reached me, we'd all be scoured threadbare and she'd be on the verge of
the grave. May and I weeded the flowerbeds, picked all the ripe seed,
and pulled up and burned all the stalks that were done blooming.
Father and Laddie went over the garden carefully; they scraped the
walks and even shook the palings to see if one were going to come loose
right at the last minute, when every one would be so flustrated there
would be no time to fix it.

Then they began to talk about arrangements for the ceremony, whether we
should have our regular minister, or Presiding Elder Lemon, and what
people they were going to invite. Just when we had planned to ask
every one, have the wedding in the church, and the breakfast at the
house, and all drive in a joyous procession to Groveville to give them
a good send-off in walked Sally. She had been visiting Peter's people,
and we planned a lot while she was away.

"What's going on here?" she asked, standing in the doorway, dangling
her bonnet by the ties.

She never looked prettier. Her hair had blown out in little curls
around her face from riding, her cheeks were so pink, and her eyes so
bright.

"We were talking about having the ceremony in the church, so every one
can be comfortably seated, and see and hear well," answered mother.

Sally straightened up and began jerking the roses on her bonnet far too
roughly for artificial flowers. Perhaps I surprised you with that
artificial word, but I can spell and define it; it's easy divided into
syllables. Goodness knows, I have seen enough flowers made from the
hair of the dead, wax, and paper, where you get the shape, but the
colour never is right. These of Sally's were much too bright, but they
were better than the ones made at our house. Hers were of cloth and
bought at a store. You couldn't tell why, but Sally jerked her roses;
I wished she wouldn't, because I very well knew they would be used to
trim my hat the next summer, and she said: "Well, people don't have to
be comfortable during a wedding ceremony; they can stand up if I can,
and as for seeing and hearing, I'm asking a good many that I don't
intend to have see or hear either one!"

"My soul!" cried mother, and she dropped her hands and her mouth fell
open, like she always told us we never sho