the wedding, and were often prolonged through several days. In country places or small towns weddings proved delightful occasions for gathering a neighborhood together. Family coaches or stages brought numbers of guests to the ceremony, and many stayed overnight. There was gossiping, feasting, and punchdrinking galore for the older people, and for the young all the pleasant exchange of smiles and glances and gay nothings that would eventually lead to other weddings in the same circle.

A Harrisburg antiquary says of oldtime weddings,

6

"They were not the brief, soulless affairs of to-day. Guests sometimes arrived before breakfast and remained until the wee sma' hours' of night, and not unfrequently Aurora herself escorted them home. The hours of daylight were spent in plays full of life and spirit, such as Shove the Brogan,' The Meat's a-Burning,' etc., interspersed with breathing spells for refreshments, when wit and humor had free scope, and such out-door sports as Prisoner's Base' and 'Jump the Bullies.' (The latter was purely a masculine game which offered the 'young fellows' an excellent opportunity to display their agility.) And when night let fall

her sable curtain, the halls resounded with instrumental music and dancing and the voice of song."

Although we do not hear as much of "bride stealing" in the Middle Colonies as in New England, the groom was not allowed to quit the ranks of the single without a parting salute from his companions. A custom prevailed in Southern Pennsylvania, and among the Scotch-Irish in Virginia, of barring the progress of the coach of the newly married pair by ropes or other obstacles, which were not removed until the groom paid toll in the form of a bottle of wine or of drinks to his persecutors. These and other customs, which seem to us so rude, do not appear to have seriously interfered with matrimony, and the brides were as fair and as modest as those of to-day, while the grooms were equally handsome, and how much more picturesque !

An old Philadelphian who has lived long enough to recall the early years of this century describes a handsome, imposing house on High Street, between

Seventh and Eighth, and tells of the pleasure she found in looking from the windows of her Quaker home opposite upon the gay doings in this more worldly mansion. Miss Beck, the young lady of the house, has remained a lovely picture in her memory, and she says that she can see her now as she used to come down the marble steps in her dainty slippers with their ribbons crossed and tied around her trim ankles, her long, flowing crape scarf about her shoulders, her high scoop hat with its many feathers and large veil gracefully festooned over its brim, the clustering curls upon her forehead, and her beautiful, bright face beneath. To see her enter her carriage was always a delight; but the day of days in the memory of this imaginative child was when the lady whom she admired so much came down the steps as a bride in her travelling-dress of rich silk, attended by the groom, who was brave in satin, velvet, and shining buckles, while her two brothers walked behind her, each holding in a leash his favorite greyhound. When the steps of the great black chariot

with its yellow wheels were let down and the bride stepped in and the groom took his place beside her, the moment was intense, thrilling; the last act in the drama of love. Are there any such weddings now? Are there any brides like those who to the children living opposite were veritable fairy princesses from Andersen's tales ?

LEGEND AND ROMANCE.

THE search after the truth concerning a personage or a place mentioned in fiction may be as fruitless in practical results as the pursuit of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; yet how fascinating is such a quest, presupposing, as it does, the power of those who enter upon it to create for themselves a world of fancy, a fool's paradise, or whatever you may choose to call it, which is in itself a rare and delight