"Gee, Sis, have a heart! She's been love struck, too. Regular epidemic
at Reists'!" But he went off to offer his services to the hired girl.
As Amanda dressed in her white silk gown she wished she were beautiful.
"Every girl ought to have beauty once in her life," she thought. "Even
for just one hour on her wedding day it would be a boon. But then, love
is supposed to be blind, so perhaps Martin will think I am beautiful
to-day."
She was not beautiful, but her eyes shone soft and her face was
expressive of the joy in her heart as she stood ready for the ceremony
which was the consummation of her love for the knight of her girlhood's
dreams.
It would be impossible to find a more beautiful setting for a wedding
than the Reist cherry orchard that May day. There were rows of trees,
with their fresh young green and their canopies of lacy bloom through
which the warm May sunshine trickled like gold. As Amanda and Martin
stood before the waiting clergyman and in the presence of relatives,
friends and neighbors, faint breezes stirred the branches and fugitive
little petals loosened from the hearts of the blossoms and fell upon
the happy people gathered under the white glory of the orchard.
Several robins with nests already built on broad crotches of the cherry
trees hovered about, their black eyes peering questioningly down at the
unwonted visitors to the place. Once during the marriage service a
Baltimore oriole flashed into a tree near by, his golden plumage made
more intense against the white blossoms. With proud assurance he
demonstrated his appreciation of the orchard and perched fearlessly on
an outer bough while he whistled his insistent, imperious, "Here, here,
come here!"
As the words, "Until death do us part"--the old, inadequate mortal
expression for love that is deathless--sounded in that white-arched
temple Amanda thought of Riley's "Song of the Road" and its "To Heaven's door, and _through_, my lad,
O I will walk with you."
After the ceremony the strains of a Wedding March fell upon the ears of
the people gathered in the orchard.
Amanda's lips parted in pleasure. "That's Phil's work!" she cried and
ran behind the clump of bushes from where the music seemed to come.
Philip was stooping to grind the motor of Landis's Victrola.
"Phil, you dear!"
"Aren't I though!" he said frivolously. "I had the heck of a time
getting this thing here while you were dressing and keeping it hidden.
I had to bribe little Charlie twice to keep him from telling you. He
was so sure you'd want to know all about it."
"It's just the last touch we needed to make this perfect."
"Leave it to your devoted brother. Now go back and receive the best
wishes or congratulations or whatever it is they give the bride."