There was such a strong inflection of triumphant joy in Miss Clegg's voice as she called the momentous news to her friend that it would have been at once--and most truthfully--surmised that the getting of Hiram had been a more than slight labor. Mrs. Lathrop was waiting by the fence, impatience written with a wandering reflection all over the serenity of her every-day expression. Susan only waited to lay aside her bonnet and mitts and then hastened to the fence herself. "Mrs. Lathrop, you never saw nor heard the like of this weddin' day in all your own ays to be or to come, 'n' I don't suppose there ever will be anything like it again, for Lucy Dill did n't cut no figger in her own weddin' a _tall_,--the whole thing was Gran'ma Mullins first, last 'n' forever hereafter. I tell you it looked once or twice as if it would n't be a earthly possibility to marry Hiram away from his mother, 'n' now that it 's all over people can't do anything but say as after all Lucy ought to consider herself very lucky as things turned out, for if things had n't turned out as they did turn out I don't believe anything on earth could have unhooked that son, 'n' I 'm willin' to swear that anywhere to any one. "Do you know, Mrs. Lathrop, that Gran'ma Mullins was so bad off last night as they had to put a mustard plaster onto her while Hiram went to see Lucy for the last time, 'n' Mrs. Macy says as she never hear the beat o' her memory, for she says she 'll take her Bible oath as Gran'ma Mullins told her what Hiram said 'n' done every minute o' his life while he was gone to see Lucy Dill. 'N' she cried, too, 'n' took on the whole time she was talkin' 'n' said Heaven help her, for nobody else could, 'n' she just knowed Lucy 'd get tired o' Hiram's story 'n' he can't be happy a whole day without he tells it, 'n' she 's most sure Lucy won't like his singin' 'Marchin' Through Georgia' after the first month or two, 'n' it 's the only tune as Hiram has ever really took to. Mrs. Macy says she soon found she could n't do nothin' to stem the tide except to drink tea 'n' listen, so she drank an' listened till Hiram come home about eleven. Oh, my, but she says they had _the_ time then! Gran'ma Mullins let him in herself, 'n' just as soon as he was in she bu'st into floods of tears 'n' would n't let him loose under no consideration. She says Hiram managed to get his back to the wall for a brace 'cause Gran'ma Mullins nigh to upset him every fresh time as Lucy come over her, 'n' Mrs. Macy says she could n't but wonder what the end was goin' to be when, toward midnight, Hiram just lost patience 'n' dodged out under her arm 'n' ran up the ladder to the roof-room 'n' they could n't get him to come down again. She says when Gran'ma Mullins realized as he would n't come down she most went mad over the notion of her only son's spendin' the Christmas Eve to his own weddin' sleepin' on the floor o' the attic 'n' she wanted to poke the cot up to him, but Mrs. Macy says