With all her quizzing, prying, and peeking, Mrs. Perkins was unable to learn any thing definite with regard to the wedding dress, and as a last resort, she appealed to Jenny, “who of course ought to know, seein’ she was goin’ to stand up with ’em.”

“O, yes, I know,” said Jenny, mischievously, and pulling from her pocket a bit of brown and white plaid silk,—­Mary’s travelling dress,—­she passed it to the widow, who straightway wondered at Mary’s taste in selecting “that gingham-looking thing!”

Occasionally the widow felt some doubt as she heard rumors of pink brocades, India muslins, heavy silks, and embroidered merino morning-gowns; “but law,” thought she “them are for the city.  Any thing ’ll do for the country, though I should s’pose she’d want to look decent before all the Boston top-knots that are comin’.”

Three days before the wedding, the widow’s heart was made glad with a card of invitation, though she wondered why Mrs. Mason should say she would be “at home.”  “Of course she’d be to hum,—­where else should she be!”

It was amusing to see the airs which Mrs. Perkins took upon herself, when conversing with some of her neighbors, who were not fortunate enough to be invited.  “They couldn’t ask every body, and ’twas natural for them to select from the best families.”

Her pride, however, received a fall when she learned that Sally Furbush had not only been invited, and presented with a black silk dress for the occasion, but that George Moreland, who arrived the day preceding the wedding, had gone for her himself, treating her with all the deference that he would the most distinguished lady.  And truly for once Sally acquitted herself with a great deal of credit, and remembering Miss Grundy’s parting advice, to “keep her tongue between her teeth,” she so far restrained her loquacity, that a stranger would never have thought of her being crazy.

The bridal day was bright, beautiful, and balmy, as the first days of September often are, and when the sun went down, the full silvery moon came softly up, as if to shower her blessings upon the nuptials about to be celebrated.  Many and brilliant lights were flashing from the windows of Mrs. Mason’s cottage, which seemed to enlarge its dimensions as one after another the guests came in.  First and foremost was the widow with her rustling silk of silver gray, and the red ribbons which she had sported at Sally Ann’s wedding.  After a series of manoeuvres she had succeeded in gaining a view of the supper table, and now in a corner of the room she was detailing the particulars to an attentive group of listeners.

“The queerest things I ever see,” said she, “and the queerest names, too.  Why, at one end of the table is a muslin de laine puddin’—­”