The rehearsal for the wedding is usually held in the church on
the afternoon preceding the day of the nuptials. The ushers, of
course, are an hour late, which gives the bridegroom (Bap.) an
opportunity to meet the minister (Epis.) and have a nice, long
chat about religion, while the best man (Atheist) talks to the
eighty-three year old sexton who buried the bride’s grandpa and
grandma and has knowed little Miss Dorothy come twenty years next
Michaelmas. The best man’s offer of twenty-five dollars, if the
sexton will at once bury the maid of honor, is generally refused
as a matter of courtesy.