But the few friends that had been invited had come in; the simple words that make two inseparably one, were uttered; and then, as the table was being laid, bride and bridegroom poured forth their joy in Christian song. Strangely touching was it here on the lone prairie to listen to wedded love thus expressed. Very happy were they, and comely too, in the freshness and vigor of their youth. And, as we gathered around the well-spread board, the sick mother, taking once more her place at the head of the table, her face beaming the peace she felt, there was a glow at my heart, such as I never experienced before as guest at a marriage feast. Their happiness was peculiarly artless and childlike; and the hymns they sang, what strange interpreters of that happiness! There was only one hymn-book in the house, and that belonged to the father, and was devoted to the idea that molded his thoughts. But what cared they, if the sentiment was of unearthly things,—if it only helped them warble their bird-like joyfulness? With loving looks, and smiling faces, absorbed in thoughts of each other, they struck up,— "The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll in fire, As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his ire; So, self-moving he rides on his pathway of cloud, And the heavens with the burden of Godhead are bowed. "The judgment! the judgment! the thrones are all set, Where the white arrayed throngs, and the elders are met; From the east, from the west, from the south, from the north, All the vast generations of men are come forth!" Then, more plaintively, they sang,— "Son of God, thy people's shield; Must we still thine absence mourn? Let thy promise be fulfilled; Thou hast said, I will return. "As a woman counts the days Till her absent lord she see,— Mourns and watches, weeps and prays, So thy church will weep for thee!" As the father led my horse out for me to mount, he said, "We thank you for coming." Then, as I was gathering up the reins, "I suppose you have never noticed what the Bible says about the railroad cars being a sign of the times? Our ministers are dreadfully in the dark about the day we live in!" "Ah! is it possible that the cars are predicted; what prophecy is that?" "In Nahum, second chapter, third and fourth verses," he answered, taking out his well-thumbed pocket Bible, and proceeding to expound, with much inward comfort, as he read,—