  The wedding was in May, exactly a year from the day of the poison ivy luncheon. All Dogtown was invited, and filled the gray stone church on the hillside to overflowing, even though the dogs attended by proxy, except in a few rare cases. Laddie was one of these, for Mrs. Carr never went without him, and he sat quietly beside her like a little old man, with bent head and silvery locks. Mrs. Carr herself was resplendent in a new black cloak, and a close silk bonnet of the bride’s making took the place of the old pointed hood. Her gift was her precious old Lowestoft teaset. “I’ve had my pride o’ it,” she said, when Miss Jule had remonstrated with her, “and when I gie a gift I like it o’ gude stuff.” Anne was maid of honour, and Tommy wept bitterly because he could not be best man. However, he managed to be quite prominent as it was. The day was perfect, and both the church and The dogs of all three families had been brushed, and their collars decorated with immense bows of white ribbon; but they were carefully locked up during the ceremony, to be ready to appear at the breakfast, for if Waddles had gone near enough to the church to have heard the organ play, his baying would have certainly brought the wedding march to an untimely end. As it was, all promised well, and as Miss Letty crossed the vine-draped church porch, the people who watched thought that never had there been a sweeter girl bride. On the side nearest to Anne a dimple that would come and go, and threatened to end in a smile, broke the seriousness of her face, and the cause of it was at first hidden by the folds of her veil and train. It was Tip, the devoted spaniel, who, climbing out of the window of the room where he was prisoned, had dropped first to the porch and then the ground, and caught up with the procession just in time to slip into the church unnoticed, except by her he was following. However, he behaved like a gentleman, and sat sedately on the top step during the ceremony. This, together with the white bow he wore, caused some of the village gossips, who were not invited, to say that the whole thing was planned, and was Tommy, who with his mother and father occupied one of the front pews, crept out and drew gradually nearer to where stood the family lawyer and friend, on whose arm the bride had entered. In another moment he had climbed into a chancel chair that was partly concealed by a column; from this place he had an unimpeded view. It was the first time that the child had ever been to a wedding, and the doings had all the fascination of entire novelty. So when the clergyman, looking up, asked distinctly, “Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?” Tommy shouted “Me!” without the slightest suspicion that it was not what was expected of him, adding indignantly to an usher who made haste to lift him down, amid the natural ripple of laughter, “I had to, of course, The wedding breakfast was very jolly, at least everybody said so, and all sorts of jokes were mingled with the congratulations. The minister, who was very bashful, astonished himself by saying that he was glad that they had finished with all the barbed wires of life before the wedding, and then suddenly kissed the bride, amid general applause. The wedding cake boxes were white with initials, and a dog’s head, Miss Jule’s crest, in silver. And the gossips had a second spasm when they learned beyond dispute that there were souvenirs, of Miss Letty’s invention, for all who owned dogs—small-sized Bologna sausages wrapped in silver foil, and tied with white. After it was all over,—and the bride had gone away, and the last shoe been thrown, while Miss Jule was removing rice from her neck, saying to a rather mournful relative, “Of course they will be happy, they can’t help it, for they not only like but dislike the same things,”—Tip appeared from upstairs with a crestfallen air, and in his mouth a white slipper, one that his idol had just discarded, which had dropped to the floor of her room. “Mistress,” said Waddles, as he sat watching her that night while she put away her trinkets, and brushed and braided her hair, “I wish that I hadn’t eaten so much of that round black lumpy cheese that Miss Letty cut with the great knife.” “So do I,” said Anne, with a sigh; “but then, Waddlekins, you see Mr. Hugh and Miss Letty will never be married to each other again, and we Then the Mayor of Dogtown and Diana his mistress slept the sleep of wedding cake, which is heavy with dreams! Here end the Annals. Four-Footed Americans and Their Kin By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT Edited by Frank M. Chapman. Illustrated by Ernest Seton-Thompson Cloth. Crown 8vo. $1.50, net “It deserves commendation for its fascinating style, and for the fund of information which it contains regarding the familiar and many unfamiliar animals of this country. It is an ideal book for children, and doubtless older folk will find in its pages much of interest.”—The Dial. “Books like this are cups of delight to wide-awake and inquisitive girls and boys. Here is a gossipy history of American quadrupeds, bright, entertaining, and thoroughly instructive. The text, by Mrs. Wright, has all the fascination that distinguishes her other outdoor books.”—The Independent. Citizen Bird Scenes from Bird-life in Plain English for a Beginner By MABEL O. WRIGHT and Dr. ELLIOTT COUES Profusely illustrated by Louis Agassiz Fuertes Cloth. Crown 8vo. $1.50, net “When two writers of marked ability in both literature and natural history write to produce a work giving scope to their special talents, the public has reason to expect a masterpiece of its kind. In the ‘Citizen Bird,’ by Mabel O. Wright and Dr. Elliot Coues, this expectation is realized—seldom is the plan of a book so admirably conceived, and in every detail so excellently fulfilled.”—The Dial. “There is no other book in existence so well fitted for arousing and directing the interest that all children feel toward the birds.”—Tribune, Chicago. Birdcraft A Field-Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT With eighty full-page plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes “One of the best books that amateurs in the study of ornithology can find ... direct, forcible, plain, and pleasing.”—Chautauquan. “Of books on birds there are many, all more or less valuable, but ‘Birdcraft,’ by Mabel O. Wright, has peculiar merits that will endear it to amateur ornithologists.... A large number of excellent illustrations throw light on the text and help to make a book that will arouse the delight and win the gratitude of every lover of birds.”—Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. Tommy-Anne and the Three Hearts By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT With many illustrations by Albert D. Blashfield Cloth. Crown 8vo. $1.50 “This book is calculated to interest children in nature, and grown folks, too, will find themselves catching the author’s enthusiasm. As for Tommy-Anne herself, she is bound to make friends wherever she is known. The more of such books as these, the better for the children. One Tommy-Anne is worth a whole shelf of the average juvenile literature.”—The Critic. Wabeno, the Magician The Sequel to Tommy-Anne and the Three Hearts By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT Fully illustrated by Joseph M. Gleeson Cloth. Crown 8vo. $1.50 “Mrs. Wright’s book teaches her young readers to use their eyes and ears, but it does more in that it cultivates in them a genuine love for nature and for every member of the animal kingdom. The best of the book is that it is never dull.”—Boston Budget. The Dream Fox Story Book By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT With eighty drawings by Oliver Herford Cloth. Small quarto. $1.50, net Mrs. Wright’s new book for young people recounts the marvellous adventures of Billy Benton, his acquaintance with the Dream Fox and the Night Mare, and what came of it. It differs from the author’s previous stories, as it is purely imaginative and somewhat similar to “Alice in Wonderland.” There are eight full-page illustrations, showing Billy at moments of greatest interest, and also seventy drawings scattered throughout the text. These illustrations are by Oliver Herford, who has entered thoroughly into the spirit of the text, so that the pictures seem an integral part of the story. Flowers and Ferns in Their Haunts By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT With illustrations from photographs by the author and J. Horace McFarland Cloth, 12mo. $2.50, net “The reader of Mrs. Wright’s handsome volume will wend his way into a fairy world of loveliness, and find not only serious wildwood lore, but poetry also, and sentiment and pictures of the pen that will stay with him through winter days of snow and ice.... A careful and interesting companion, its many illustrations being particularly useful.”—New York Tribune. “There is no question that this is a book in which you must be examined before you are fit to pass into the country.”—New York Sun. “The illustrations are altogether worthy of the text ... a series of exquisite pictures of flowers and ferns.”—London Daily News. The Friendship of Nature A New England Chronicle of Birds and Flowers By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 18mo. Cloth, 75 cts. Large Paper, $3.00 “A dainty little volume, exhaling the perfume and radiating the hues of both cultivated and wild flowers, echoing the songs of birds, and illustrated with exquisite pen pictures of bits of garden, field, and woodland scenery. The author is an intimate of nature. She relishes its beauties with the keenest delight, and describes them with a musical flow of language that carries us along from a ‘May Day’ to a ‘Winter Mood’ in a thoroughly sustained effort; and as we drift with the current of her fancy and her tribute to nature, we gather much that is informatory, for she has made a close study of the habits of birds and the legendry of flowers.”—Richmond Dispatch. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. Several of the page numbers in the original list of illustrations are incorrect. Page numbers have been updated to reflect the correct page numbers for this eBook. |
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