All of the Rovers had come up to Cedarville and they were now stopping at the home of Mr. Laning, the father of Grace and Nellie.  As my old readers know, the Stanhopes lived but a short distance away, and nearby was Putnam Hall, where the boys had spent so many happy days.

Dora had left Hope as soon as it was settled that she and Dick should be married, and she and her mother, and the others, had been busy for some time getting ready for the wedding.  Nellie and Grace were also home, and were as much excited as Dora herself, for they were both to be bridesmaids.  The girls had spent several days in New York, shopping, and a dressmaker from the city had been called in to dress the young ladies as befitted the occasion.

Tom was to be Dick’s best man, while Sam was to head the ushers at the church—­ the other ushers being Songbird, Stanley, Fred Garrison, Larry Colby, and Bart Conners.  A delegation of students from Brill—­ including William Philander Tubbs—­ had also come up, and were quartered at the Cedarville Hotel.

The wedding was to take place at the Cedarville Union Church, a quaint little stone edifice, covered with ivy, which the Stanhopes and the Lanings both attended and which the Rover boys had often visited while they were cadets at Putnam Hall.  The interior of the church was a mass of palms, sent up on the boat from Ithaca.

Following the sending out of the invitations to the wedding, presents had come in thick and fast to the Stanhope home.  From Dick’s father came an elegant silver service, and from his brothers a beautifully-decorated dinner set; while Uncle Randolph and Aunt Martha contributed a fine set of the latest encyclopaedias, and a specially-bound volume of the uncle’s book on scientific farming!  Mr. Anderson Rover also contributed a bank book with an amount written therein that nearly took away Dora’s breath.

“Oh, Dick, just look at the sum!” she cried.

“It sure is a tidy nest egg,” smiled the husband-to-be.  “I knew dad would come down handsomely.  He’s the best dad ever was!”

“Yes, Dick, and I know I am going to love him just as if I was his own daughter,” answered Dora.

Mrs. Stanhope gave her daughter much of the family silver and jewelry, and also a full supply of table and other linen.  From Captain Putnam came a handsome morris chair, and Songbird sent in a beautifully-bound volume of household poetry, with a poem of his own on the flyleaf.  The students of Brill sent in a fine oil painting in a gold frame, and the girls at Hope contributed an inlaid workbox with a complete sewing outfit.  From Dan Baxter, who had been invited, along with the young lady to whom he was engaged, came two gold napkin rings, each suitably engraved.  Dan had written to Dick, saying he would come to the wedding if he had to take a week off to get there, he being then in Washington on a business trip.