As night approached, carriage after carriage rolled up the long, graveled pathway, until Ike declared, “Thar was no more room in the barns, and if any more came he’d have to drive them into the kitchen.”

Up and down the broad stairway tripped light and joyous footsteps until the rooms above, which Luce had put in so exact order, presented a scene of complete confusion.  Bandboxes were turned bottom-side up and their contents indiscriminately scattered until it was impossible to tell what was yours and what wasn’t.

At length through the parlor door came Dr. Lacey and Fanny, followed by Frank Cameron and Florence.  Throughout the rooms was a solemn hush as Fanny was made Dr. Lacey’s wife.  Firmly Dr. Lacey held her hand until the last word was spoken; then when he felt sure that she was his, he stooped down and whispered in her ear, “Thank God that you are mine at last.”

Three days after the wedding Mr. Middleton’s carriage again stood before the door.  When all was ready, Uncle Joshua knelt down, and winding his arm around Fanny, prayed in simple, touching language that God would protect his Sunshine, and at last bring them all to the same home.  “All of us; and don’t let one be missing thar.”  There was a peculiar pathos in the tone of his voice as he said the last words, and all knew to whom he referred.

Long and wearisome at Mr. Middleton’s were the days succeeding Fanny’s departure, while in Dr. Lacey’s home all was joy and gladness.

It was about dark when Dr. Lacey arrived.  Happy as a bird, Fanny sprang up the steps.  Everything about her seemed homelike and cheerful.  Kind, dusky faces peered at her from every corner, while Aunt Dilsey, with a complacent smile, stood ready to receive her.  Fanny was prepared to like everything, but there was something peculiarly pleasing to her in Aunt Dilsey’s broad, good-humored face.  Going up to her she took both her hands, and said, “I know we shall be good friends.  I shall like you and you shall love me a little, won’t you, just as the old aunties did I left in Kentucky?”

Aunt Dilsey hadn’t expected all this, and the poor creature burst into tears, saying, “Lord bless the sweet miss!  I’d die for her this minute, I would.”

Rondeau, Leffie and the other blacks belonging to the establishment, now came forward, and in the crowd little Jack’s bow was entirely unappreciated; but Fanny next day made amends by giving him nearly a pound of candy, which had the effect of making him sick a week, but he got well in time to be present at Leffie’s wedding, which took place just a week after Dr. Lacey’s return.

Leffie, who chanced to be just the size of her young mistress, was thrown into ecstasies by the gift of a thin pink and white silk dress, which Fanny presented to her for a bridal gown.  Aunt Dilsey, in order to show her thanks, went down on her knees, a thing she never attempted again, as it took her such an unheard-of length of time to recover a standing posture.  Dr. Lacey had made Leffie the present of a pair of gold earrings, so that she was really a pretty bride, and Rondeau was the happiest negro in all New Orleans.