At the conclusion of the toast four glasses of whiskey were emptied down four men's throats.
A man went down from his house to the road where his mailbox was nailed to a redwood post. The stage was just coming in.
"Any news?" asked the man of the stage-driver as he took his mail.
"News!" said the driver. "I should say there was. They tell me that Charles Herne has been, and gone, and done it."
Saunders, the merchant of Orangeville, told his customers that day that "Charles Herne had got spliced."
Tim Collins took a span of kicking mules to Pierce, the blacksmith, to be shod.
"Well, Tim, I got some news for you," said Pierce.
"What is it?" said Tim.
"Charles Herne has got hitched up."
Now one could not discern any perceptible change in Charles Herne, if it were true that he had done all the many and varied things which his neighbors stated he had; such as "Brought home a brand-new wife," "Got him a woman," "Got a bride," "Got a running mate," "Been, gone, and done it," "Got spliced," "Got hitched up," and so on.