"'Why, gentlemen, ye see, it is not quite convenient _to-night_. We've got a _wedden_ here. I can't tell what our folks would do with so many people. We shall have to keep all the weddeners, like enough--'tis a savage night, out, I guess.' At this crisis the son of 'mine host,' and heir-apparent of house and homestead, came forward. "'Father, I guess we can accommodate the gentlemen somehow. The young men can sit up--there will be no difficulty. We can give them a shelter and a warm supper at any rate.' "All was settled, and in we went; and after due stamping, shaking over-coats, and brushing up, with suitable ablutions, we were ushered into the presence of the bride. She was an interesting girl of eighteen, with a countenance bright with health, intelligence, and happiness, dressed with marked simplicity, and in charming taste. On one side she was sustained by her lover--I beg pardon, her husband; the knot had been tied a few minutes before our untimely intrusion--on the other by two fair girls, their white favors, I took to be bride's-maids. "The ceremony of congratulating, or saluting, the new-married lady, now commenced; but I perceived the young lady grew pale, and showed symptoms of great reluctance at receiving the salutations of this promiscuous company. The pretty bride's-maids too, were considered fair game, and after resisting, with very becoming shyness, they escaped from the room, till the odious ceremony, as they called it, was over. "This odd custom duly complied with, a custom now quite obsolete in our cities, cake and metheglin were handed about. An apology was made to the strangers for the absence of wine, on the plea of '_total abstinence_.' A question was made at once, whether metheglin did not come under the ban. "'Well, well, my friends,' said the old gentleman, 'if it goes agin your consciences, ye need not partake; but one thing I can tell ye, 'tis better than any wine. When I was a young man, I read a book called the Vicar of Wakefield, and I remember how the minister used to praise madam's gooseberry wine; now I don't believe it was a grain better than my wife's metheglin, and I don't think there's any sin in drinking on't either--_at a wedden_.'