Presently the organ pealed out and the minister appeared, followed a moment later by Sam. Then up the aisle came Grace on the arm of Mr. Laning, and daintily attired in white with a flowing veil beset with orange blossoms.
"Oh, how pretty she looks!" said more than one; and they spoke the truth, for Grace certainly made a beautiful bride.
The ceremony was a brief but solemn one, and then, as the organ pealed out joyously, the happy pair walked forth from the church, to enter an automobile which whirled them off to the Laning homestead. To that place they were followed by a great number of invited guests. An elaborate wedding dinner had been prepared, and an orchestra from the city had been hired, and all sat down to a feast of good things with music.
"We'll have to give them a send-off—same as they gave me," said Tom to his brother Dick, while the festivities were at their height. "They'll be getting ready to go away soon."
"Sure! we'll give them a send-off," returned the oldest brother. "Come on, let us get busy."
Down at the barns an automobile was in readiness to take Sam and his bride away on their wedding trip. This car Dick and Tom and a number of others lost no time in decorating with white streamers and a placard which read: We are on our wedding trip. Congratulate us.
"Aren't you going to stay to have a dance?" questioned Nellie of her sister, a little later.
"Of course," answered Grace; and shortly after that she and Sam tripped around to the tuneful measures of a two-step. All of the young folks present joined in, the older folks looking on with much satisfaction.
"I can hardly believe it," declared old Aunt Martha, as she took off her spectacles to wipe her eyes. "Why, it don't seem no time since Sam was just a baby!"
The dancing continued for some time but then, of a sudden, came a cry from Dora: