Now did you ever hear of anything quite so dear as that, for a
baby only three years and five months old? I tell you she is a
wonder. You will all adore her, Clover particularly. Oh, my dear
little C.! To think I am going to see her!

I met both Ellen Gray and Esther Dearborn the other day, and
where do you think it was? At Mary Silver's wedding! Yes, she is
actually married to the Rev. Charles Playfair Strothers, and
settled in a little parsonage somewhere in the Hoosac
Tunnel,--or near it,--and already immersed in "duties." I can't
think what arguments he used to screw her up to the rash act;
but there she is.

It wasn't exactly what one would call a cheerful wedding. All
the connection took it very seriously; and Mary's uncle, who
married her, preached quite a lengthy funeral discourse to the
young couple, and got them nicely ready for death, burial, and
the next world, before he would consent to unite them for this.
He was a solemn-looking old person, who had been a missionary,
and "had laid away three dear wives in foreign lands," as he
confided to me afterward over a plate of ice-cream. He seemed
to me to be "taking notice," as they say of babies, and it is
barely possible that he mistook me for a single woman, for his
attentions were rather pronounced till I introduced my husband
prominently into conversation; after that he seemed more
attracted by Ellen Gray.

Mary cried straight through the ceremony. In fact, I imagine she
cried straight through the engagement, for her eyes looked wept
out and had scarlet rims, and she was as white as her veil. In