Not many weeks after the tea party, there were two weddings. Mr. Burton and Aunt Mercy were married on Wednesday quietly at her house, and none of the boys were there except Phaeton and Ned. Roderick Ayr and Miss Glidden were married next morning in church, and all the boys were there.
In the arrangements for this wedding, it was planned that there should be no bridesmaids and no best man, though it was then the fashion to have them,—but four ushers. Jack had asked Phaeton and Ned Rogers, Isaac Holman, and me, to officiate in this capacity; and we, with a few of the other boys, met in the printing-office to talk it over.
"I suppose we shall get along somehow," said Ned, "but I never ushed in my life, and I wouldn't like to make any blunder."
"You can buy a behavior-book that tells all about it," said Charlie Garrison.
"I don't much believe in books for such things," said Ned. "I remember once when we were going to take Uncle Jacob's horse to pasture, Fay sat up half the night reading a book about horseback-riding, and yet when we actually had the horse under us, we didn't get along very well."
"That," said I, "was only because we hadn't the proper things. If we had had a Mexican saddle and a gag bit and wheel spurs, we should have galloped over the ground so fast we could hardly have viewed the scenery as we rode by."
"Yes," said Charlie, "and you'll find you must have a lot of trappings for this affair—white gloves and bouquets, and rosettes and cockades, and bridal favors, and a little club with ribbons on it, to hit the boys when they don't keep still."
"Oh, pshaw!" said Jimmy the Rhymer, "half of those are the same thing. And as for hitting the boys, they'd better hit the whole congregation, who never know any better than to jump up and gaze around every time there's a rumor that the bridal party have arrived."
"I don't think we need be troubled about it," said Phaeton. "Of course Jack will rehearse us a little, and instruct us what to do."
"Bonus ego cervus! Good idea!" said Holman. "Let's go up to the Box this afternoon and ask him."