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Dear Laura! How she had laughed with the other girls, all in a good-natured way, at the good Parson’s exhortation to the young couples. Laura had heard it twenty times,–for she had “stood up” with twenty of the girls, who had dared The Enterprise of Life before her! Nay, Laura could repeat, with all the emphasis, the most pathetic passage of the whole,–“And above all,–my beloved young friends,–first of all and last of all,–let me beseech you as you climb the hill of life together, hand with hand, and step with step,–that you will look beyond the crests upon its summit to the eternal lights which blaze in the infinite heaven of the Better Land beyond.” Twenty times had Laura heard this passage,–nay, ten times, I am afraid, had she, in an honest and friendly way, repeated it, under strict vows of secrecy, to the edification of circles of screaming girls. But now the dear child looked truly and loyally into the old man’s face, as he went on from word to word, and only thought of him, and of how noble and true he was,–and of the Great Master whom he represented there,–and it was just as real to her and to Tom Cutts that they must look into the Heaven of heavens for life and strength, as Parson Spaulding wanted it to be. When he prayed with all his heart, she prayed; what he hoped, she hoped; what he promised for her, she promised to her Father in heaven; and what he asked her to promise by word aloud, she promised loyally and eternally.

And Tom Cutts? He looked so handsome in his uniform,–and he looked like the man he was. And in those days, the uniform, if it were only a flannel fatigue-jacket on a private’s back, was as beautiful as the flag; nothing more beautiful than either for eyes to look upon. And when Parson Spaulding had said the benediction, and the Amen,–and when he had kissed Laura, with her eyes full of tears,–and when he had given Tom Cutts joy,–then all the people came up in a double line,–and they all kissed Laura,–and they shook hands with Tom as if they would shake his hands off,–and in the half-reticent methods of Tripp’s Cove, every lord and lady bright that was in Moses Marvel’s parlor there, said, “honored be the bravest knight, beloved the fairest fair.”

And there was a bunch of laurel hanging in the middle of the room, as make-believe mistletoe. And the boys, who could not make believe even that they were eighteen, so that they had been left at home, would catch Phebe, and Sarah, and Mattie, and Helen, when by accident they crossed underneath the laurel,–and would kiss them, for all their screaming. And soon Moses Marvel brought in a waiter with wedding-cake, and Nathan Philbrick brought in a waiter with bride-cake, and pretty Mattie Marvel brought in a waiter with currant wine. And Tom Cutts gave every girl a piece of wedding-cake himself, and made her promise to sleep on it. And before they were all gone, he and Laura had been made to write names for the girls to dream upon, that they might draw their fortunes the next morning. And before long Moses Cutts led Mrs. Spaulding out into the great family-room, and there was the real wedding supper. And after they had eaten the supper, Bengel’s fiddle sounded in the parlor, and they danced, and they waltzed, and they polkaed to their hearts’ content. And so they celebrated the Christmas of 1861.

Too bad! was not it? Tom’s leave was only twenty days. It took five to come. It took five to go. After the wedding there were but seven little days. And then he kissed dear Laura good-by,–with tears running from his eyes and hers,–and she begged him to be sure she should be all right, and he begged her to be certain nothing would happen to him. And so, for near two years, they did not see each other’s faces again.