_PEACE IS DECLARED._
The age of miracles is not over yet, and our young people wrought
several during those three days; for in love's vocabulary there is no
such word as fail.
Dolly "stood to her guns" womanfully, and not only chose to go "home,"
but prepared for her banishment with an outward meekness and an inward
joy which made each hour memorable. Aunt Maria had her suspicions and
kept a vigilant watch, she and her maid Cobb mounting guard by turns.
Parker, finding that "no surrender" was the countersign, raised the
siege and retreated in good order, though a trifle demoralized in
dignity when he looked back during the evacuation and saw Tip bolt
upright in the end window, with the rebel flag proudly displayed.
John meanwhile was circulating briskly through the city, and showing
such ardent interest in the approaching Exposition that his mates
christened him "Centennial Harris;" while the higher powers felt that
they had done a good thing in giving him the job, and increased his
salary to make sure of so excellent a servant. Other arrangements of a
private but infinitely more interesting nature were successfully made;
and he went about smiling to himself, as if the little parcel done up in
silver paper, which he was constantly feeling for in his vest pocket,
had been a talisman conferring all good gifts upon its happy owner.
When the third night came, he was at his post long before the time, so
great was his impatience; for the four-footed traitor had been
discovered and ordered into close confinement, where he suffered, not
the fate of Andre, but the pangs of indigestion for lack of exercise
after the feast of tidbits surreptitiously administered by one who never
forgot all she owed to her "fat friend."
It seemed as if nine o'clock would never come; and, if a policeman ever
was where he should be, the guardian of that beat would have considered
John a suspicious character as he paced to and fro in the April
starlight. At last the bells began to chime, promptly the light
appeared, and, remembering how the bell of the old State House rang out
the glad tidings a hundred years ago, John waved his cherished parcel,
joyfully exclaiming, "Independence is declared! ring! ring! ring!" then
raced across the park like another Paul Revere when the signal light
shone in the steeple of the old North Church.
Next morning at an early hour a carriage drove to Aunt Maria's door, and
with a stern farewell from her nightcapped relative Dolly was sent forth
to banishment, still guarded by the faithful Cobb. The mutinous damsel
looked pale and anxious, but departed with a friendly adieu and waved
her handkerchief to Tip, disconsolate upon the door-mat. The instant
they turned the corner, however, a singular transformation took place in
both the occupants of that carriage; for Dolly caught Cobb round the
neck and kissed her, while smiles broke loose on either face, as she
said gleefully,--
"You dear old thing, what _should_ I have done without you? Am I all
right? I do hope it's becoming. I had to give up every thing else, so I
was resolved not to be married without a new bonnet."
"It's as sweet as sweet can be, and not a bit the worse for being
smuggled home in a market-basket," returned the perjured Cobb, surveying
with feminine pride and satisfaction the delicate little bonnet which
emerged from the thick veil by which its glories had been prudently
obscured.
"Here's a glass to see it in. Such a nice carriage, with white horses,
and a tidy driver; so appropriate you know. It's a happy accident, and
I'm so pleased," prattled the girl, looking about her with the delight
of an escaped prisoner.
"Bless your heart, Miss, it's all Mr. Harris's doings: he's been dodging
round the corner ever since daylight; and there he is now, I do declare.
I may as well go for a walk till your train is off, so good-by, and the
best of lucks, my dear."
There was barely time for this brief but very hearty congratulation,
when a remarkably well-dressed highwayman stopped the carriage, without
a sign of resistance from the grinning driver. Cobb got out, the
ruffian, armed not with a pistol, but a great bouquet of white roses,
got in, and the coach went on its way through the quiet streets.
"May day, and here are your flowers, my little queen."
"Oh, John!"
A short answer, but a very eloquent one, when accompanied with full
eyes, trembling lips, and a face as sweet and lovely as the roses.
It was quite satisfactory to John; and, having slightly damaged the
bridal bonnet without reproof, he, manlike, mingled bliss and business,
by saying, in a tone that made poetry of his somewhat confused
remarks,--
"Heaven bless my wife! We ought to have had the Governor's coach to-day.
Isn't Cobb a trump to get us off so nicely? Never saw a woman yet who
could resist the chance of her helping on a wedding. Remembered every
thing I told her. That reminds me. Wasn't it lucky that your relics were
boxed up in dear Aunt Maria's shed, so all Cobb had to do was to alter
the directions and send them off to Philadelphia instead of home?"
"I've been in a tremble for three days, because it seemed as if it
couldn't be possible that so much happiness was coming to me. Are you
quite sure you want me, John?" asked Dolly, careless for once of her
cherished treasures; for she had been busy with hopes and fears, while
he was attending to more material affairs.
"So sure, that I've got something here to bind you with. Do you mind
trying it on to see if it fits, for I had to guess at the size,"
answered John, producing his talisman with all a bridegroom's pride and
eagerness.
"Please let me wear that as a guard, and use this one to be married
with. I've a superstition about it, for it suits us and the year better
than any other;" and Dolly laid the little ring of reddish gold beside
the heavier one in John's palm.
"So it does, and you shall have it as you like. Do you know, when you
showed it to me three months ago, I had a fancy that it would be the
proper thing for me to put it on your finger; but I didn't dream I ever
should. Are you very certain that you don't regret the advice you gave
my friend Jack?" asked the young man, thinking with fond solicitude of
the great experiment that lay before them; for he knew by experience how
hard this world's ways sometimes are, and longed to smooth the rough
places for the confiding little creature at his side.
"Do I look as if I did?" she answered simply, but with a face so full of
a true woman's instinctive faith in the power of love to lighten labor,
sweeten poverty, and make a heaven of the plainest home, that it was
impossible to doubt her courage or fear her disloyalty.
Quite satisfied, John pocketed the rings and buttoned Dolly's gloves,
saying, while she buttoned his, both marvellously enjoying this first
service for each other, "Almost there now, and in less than half an hour
we shall be so safe that all the Aunt Marias in Christendom can't part
us any more. George has stood by me like a man and a brother, and
promised that every thing should be all right. The church will look a
trifle empty, I dare say, with only five of us to fill it; but I shall
like it better than being made a spectacle of; so will you, I fancy."
"The church? I thought runaways were married in an office, by a justice,
and without much ceremony to make it solemn. I'm very glad it isn't so,
for I shall never have but one wedding, and I'd love to have it in a
sacred place," faltered Dolly, as a sudden sense of all it meant came
over her, filling her girlish heart with tender awe.
"I knew that, dear, and so I did my best to make you feel no lack of
love, as I could not give you any splendor. I wish I had a mother to be
with you to-day; but George has lent me his, so there will be a woman's
arms to cry in, if you want to drop a tear; and fatherly old Dr. King
will give you to the happiest man alive. Well, well, my Dolly, if you'd
rather, cry here, and then let me dry your tears, as, please Heaven, I
will do all your life."
"So kind, John, so very kind! I can't thank you in words, but I'll show
by deeds how much I honor, trust, and love my husband;" and nobly Dolly
kept her word.
No one saw them as they went in, but the early sunshine made a golden
path for them to tread, and the May wind touched them with its balmy
kiss. No congratulatory clamor greeted them as they came out; but the
friendly sparrows twittered a wedding march, and the jovial George sent
them merrily away, by saying, as he gave John's hand a parting grasp,--
"I was right, you see, and there _is_ a Mrs. Harris?"
If any one doubts it, let him look well about him, and he may discover
the best thing America could send to her Exposition: an old-fashioned
home, and in it an ambitious man who could not be bought, a beautiful
woman who would not be sold; a young couple happy in their love and
labor, consecrating this centennial year, by practising the
old-fashioned virtues, honesty and thrift, independence and content.