There was to be a wedding., the first in the family. Everyone was in a twitter. Bigger, Middle and Small were to be bridesmaids. Small had no idea what a wedding was all about. Pretty Tallie was crying her eyes out because Bishop Cridge had been detained up north and would not be back in time to do it., so a strange clergyman was brought in. What “it” was, Small had no idea except that the drawing room was all decorated with flowers, great sprays of mock-orange blossom which smelled wonderful.
A marvellous three-story cake had come from town. It had a pair of clasped hands on top made of hard stuff (it wasn’t even sweet to taste–Small tried) and a pair of tiny doves floating on squiggly springs made of sugar on top of the hands. This marvellous affair sat on the centre of the dining room table., which was pulled out to the extent of all its leaves and then some, so tht their was only just room to squeeze behind the end chairs.
The wedding was to take place on the first of June. The day was fine. In the morning, Tallie the bride did something none of us would have ever dared to do before: went to the not-quite-ripe cherry trees without permission from the head of the family, gathered a handful of cherries and at them.
When we asked how dare Tallie dared help herself before the tree was pronounced ripe, Big Sister said, “Tallie will not have to obey Father and Mother any more now. She is going to be marred and she will have to obey her husband.” She was going with this husband to live in a home of her own. It as all very extraordinary, particularly about the cherries; Father’s command had always been so strict about that.
However, the bustle and excitement were very pleasant. We had the loveliest new white drresses to bridesmaid in, new sashes, hair ribbons, white shoes, gloves and stockings.
The strange parson came at eight o’clock and all the guests, Mother looked lovely; I don’t know that she had what people call beauty. She was small, dark-haired and gentle. I know now she was full of the beauty of kindness and motherliness. Father looked wretched. He did not like giving up any of his daughters.; besides he hated the dining room furniture.
The chairs and sofa were beautiful shapes; they were mahogany an upholstered in horsehair. But they had an unhappy arrangement of castors, and if you did not sit just the way they thought you ought, they tipped you to the floor. Father suffered two or three tips; and he could not bear to look foolish, so he took a dining room cane-seat chair into the drawing room with him for the wedding. He never moved more than 4 inches away from it, for fear someone else would prefer it to horsehair, too, and he would have to stand or be tipped.
We youngsters were dressed early and then al the grownups with up to dress the bride. We were told to take the greatest care to keep clear, and we sat in a row in the decorated drawing room admiring everything.
Suddenly Small remembered the ducks were not shut up for the night. Like a whirl she was off, tearing through the yard. By the ditch in the corner was a plank. It was slippery, and down she went in the mud. The side of the overskirt of the new dress was looped up with ribbon and a bunch of pink roses and white ribbon. Now it as a sight!
Small let out a hail. “Oh the wedding can’t be now, the wedding can’t be! They’ll all be so made with me because the wedding can’t be. What shall I do? What shall I do? I’ve broken the wedding!”
“What is the uproar, Small?” Bigger crossed the yard and looked. “Oh you dirty child! The wedding will go on alright, don’t alarm yourself. Only you won’t be there, though, and I doubt you will get any wedding cake…and afterward either. You’ll be in bed for the wedding.”
Small stopped bellowing. “She can’t be married without bridesmaids, can she?” Small asked in a scared whispter.
“There’s Middle and me.”
‘Doesn’t there have to be three? Oh I wanted so much to see how it was done.”
“Well, I guess all the wedding you will see or hear is the clatter of the supper dishes from yur bed. Now I am going to go in and tell Mother about you.”
Small picked herself up and followed. At the kitchen door they met the Bishop’s wife.
“Poor lamb, poor lamb!”
She kissed Small’s tear-soaked cheek between her hands. Usually Small resented those little “hundreds and thousand” kisses that Mrs. Cridge scattered all over her face as sun scatters freckles, but tonight, she found them infinitely comforting. The bishops’ wife took her to the kitchen sink. She sent Bigger for half a dozen clean towels. She soaped and and ironed an scrubbed. There was more ribbon upstairs an rosebuds in the garden.
Middle said, “Keep the hurt side close to me,” and held Small’s hand tight.
They were bring the bride downstairs now, the lovely bride! Small was quite forgotten and the wedding proceeded.
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