r girls wanted Sally to wear for them so they would get a chance to
marry that year, and Agnes Kuntz's was so large it went twice around,
and they just laughed about it. They put a blue ribbon on Sally's
stays for luck, and she borrowed Peter's sister Mary's comb to hold her
back hair. They had the most fun, and when she was all ready except
her dress they went away, and Sally stood in the middle of the room
trembling a little. Outside you could hear carriage wheels rolling,
the beat of horses' hoofs, and voices crying greetings. "There was a
sound of revelry," by day. Mother came in hurriedly. She wore her new
brown silk, with a lace collar pinned at the throat with the pin that
had a brown goldstone setting in it, and her precious ring was on her
finger. She was dainty and pretty enough to have been a bride herself.
She turned Sally around slowly, touching her hair a little and her
skirts; then she went to the closet, took out the wedding dress, put
the skirt over Sally's head, and she came up through the whiteness,
pink and glowing. She slipped her arms into the sleeves, and mother
fastened it, shook out the skirt, saw that the bead fringe hung right,
and the lace collar lay flat, then she took Sally in her arms, held her
tight and said: "God bless you, dear, and keep you always. Amen."

Then she stepped to the door, and Peter, all shining and new, came in.
He hugged Sally and kissed her like it didn't make the least difference
whether she had on calico or a wedding dress, and he just stared, and
stared at her, and never said a word, so at last she asked: "Well
Peter, do you like my dress?"

And the idiot said: "Why Sally, I hadn't even seen it!"

Then both of them laughed, and the Presiding Elder came.

I never liked to look at him very well because something had happened,
and he had only one eye. I always wondered if he had "plucked it out"
because it had "offended" him; but if you could forget his eye, and
just listen to his voice, it was like the sweetest music. He married
those two people right there in the bedroom, all but about three words
at the end. I heard and saw every bit of it. Then Sally said it was
time for me to go to mother, but she followed me into the boys' room
and shut the door. Then she knelt in her beautiful silver dress, and
put her arms around me and said: "Honest, Little Sister, aren't you
going to kiss me goodbye?"

"Oh I can if you want me to," I said, but I didn't loo