couldn't tell why. I'd be real serious, but he'd look at me and almost
die laughing. I bet I said some things I oughtn't, but I don't remember,
and I couldn't take them back if I did.

* * * * *

It's over. The wedding is over. Everything is after a while in this
life, even death; and time is the only thing that keeps on just the
same.

They're gone. Gone on their bridal tour, and the happiness that's left
Yorkburg would run a family for a long life. I wish everybody could have
seen that wedding. It's going to be long remembered, for the earth and
sky, and birds and flowers, and trees and sunshine all took part.
Everything tried to help, and as for blessings on them, they took away
enough for the human race. But now it's over I feel like my first
balloon looked when I stuck a pin in it to see what would happen. I saw.

I had a telegram from them to-day. It said:

We sail at eleven o'clock. Love to all, and hearts full for Mary
Cary.

UNCLE PARKE and AUNT KATHERINE.

Well, she's my Aunt now. That's fixed, anyhow, and the marriage that
fixed it was a beauty. Every bird in Yorkburg was singing, every flower
was blooming, and every heart was blessing; and when those fifty-eight
orphans walked in, all in white and two by two, every hand was dropping
roses. And that is what each girl was wishing: Roses, roses all her