"Because I want to nurse you as your wife, to the end, if it be His will that you shall go, and I wish to be for ever after called by your dear name." "It is a strange notion--a sweet one to me, dearest Loo. It shall be as you wish. Call father." At first the Highlander strongly objected to the wish of his child, but Loo knew how to overcome her father's objections! In the course of half-an-hour Reuben sent for Mr Tucker. The MacFearsome's medicine, whatever it was, was potent as well as patent. Reuben was able to talk with considerable energy when the pastor appeared--summoned, as he fancied, to prepare the dying man for the great change. Great, therefore, was his amazement when Reuben begged of him to make arrangements for performing the interrupted marriage ceremony within half-an-hour. "But you seem to be dying, friend?" said the perplexed pastor. "That may be so," replied the hunter quietly, "but Loo wants to be wed before I die, and we'd better waste no time about it." There was no resisting this, so the Reverend William Tucker made arrangements for the wedding, while The MacFearsome and his men were busied extinguishing the last sparks of the fire. It was near midnight before these arrangements were completed. Then the men were summoned once more to the Hall, but how different were their feelings now from what they had been earlier on that day! The occupation of old Fiddlestrings was gone. Even the huge pie was dismissed from the scene. The wedding guests crept quietly in, their gay costumes torn and covered with charcoal, and bearing other evidences of the recent conflict. They were very silent, too, and sad, for they were aware of the critical condition of the bridegroom. When all was at last prepared a new and unexpected difficulty arose. It was found that Reuben had fallen into a sound sleep! Thereupon a whispered but anxious conversation took place at the end of the hall farthest from the wounded man's couch. "We must waken him," said MacFearsome, with stern look and tone. "No, father," said Loo, with a tearful smile, "we must wait." "Your daughter is right," whispered Mr Tucker. "Whatever be the condition of Reuben, sleep is the best thing for him." "But you must start for your conference at four in the morning, and he may not awake before that," objected MacFearsome. Their perplexities were suddenly removed by Reuben himself, who awoke while they were consulting, and asked his friend Jacob--who watched at his side with the tenderness of a brother--where Loo had gone to. "She's here, Reuben, waitin' to get married," replied his friend. The hunter roused himself, looked hastily round, raised himself one one elbow, and said in a strong voice, "Come, I'm ready now. Let's get it over." Immediately Loo was at his side; the whole party assembled round his couch; the pastor opened his book, and in these exceptional circumstances Reuben Dale and Louisa MacFearsome were married!