BOOK VII DECADE OF SANG HOO ~The Rejoicings of a Bridegroom~ With axle creaking, all on fire I went, To fetch my young and lovely bride.

Three prettier damsels never tripped down the wide staircase than the brilliant brunette in crimson brocade, the pensive blonde in blue, or the rosy little bride in old muslin and white satin.

What youthful bride can equal her array? Who can with her for easy pleasure vie? From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray, From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly, Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky.

" Jack had not been in Little Rivers twenty-four hours, and he had played a part in its criminal annals and become subject to all the embarrassment of favors of a royal bride or a prima donna who is about to sail.

Soon after, the false bride said to the prince, "Dear husband, pray do me one piece of kindness."

Even when her father had brought home his pretty bride and Esther, a shy, silent child of eleven, had welcomed her, she had known that the newcomer was the weaker spirit.

There is his lyric named Misery, written in 1818, which begins 'Come, be happy,sit by me, Shadow-vested Misery: Coy, unwilling, silent bride, Mourning in thy robe of pride, Desolation deified.'

Preparations were speedily pushed forward for the wedding, which the nieces undertook to manage themselves, the prospective bride and groom being too busy at the newspaper office to devote much attention to the preliminaries of the great event.

"Yes, I drew up the will," he said, deliberately, "and I remember that he gave to you, his betrothed bride, all that he possessedgave it gladly and lovingly, and without reserve.

The case of the curious bride.

" As the King's will was law I accepted the charming bride he presented to me, and lived happily with her.

Here be lilies in the cheeks, and not roses such as befit a bonny bride.

I knew, my journey ended, I should come To you, sweet bride, the comfort of my home.

At last he tore off the cover, and stood petrified at the following passage, with which it concluded: "Remember the night-adventure when you visited your wife as a loverhow you drew her to you, and clasped her as a well-beloved bride in your arms.

Do you want to load onto an innocent bride an' groom the necessity of meeting a deficit of a couple of hundred dollars every week?" Patsy's face fell.

I saw him stand Before an altar with a gentle bride: Her face was fair, but was not that which made The starlight of his boyhood.

The captive bride.

But whilst men and women gossiped delightedly about the charms of the beauteous young bride and the gallant bearing of the groom, every tongue expressed wonderment at the gracious, stately figure of the Lady Cammilla.

The six eldest brothers were married but no wife had been found for the youngest; for three years enquiries were made to try and find a suitable bride for him, but all in vain.

And now shall queenly Libya of broad meadow-lands well-pleased receive for thee within a golden house thy glorious bride, and there make gift to her of a portion in the land, to be an inhabiter thereof with herself, neither shall it be lacking in tribute of plants bearing fruit after all kinds, neither a stranger to the beasts of chase.

He saw the blaze upon his hearth Come gleaming down the glen; For he was fain for home again, And rode before his men "'Tis many a weary day," he'd sigh, "Since I would leave her side; I'll never more leave Scotland's shore And yon, my dark-eyed bride.

If there be a new-born baby or new-wed bride in the neighbourhood, the nightcapped "doctors" will peer with more than common care, for the unearthly troop do not always return empty-handed.

Earthly brides spend a vast deal of time and thought over their trousseau, so I think Christ's bride should walk among men with a sweet aloofness while the spiritual garments are being fashioned in which she is to dwell with him.

On these terms she accepted him, and the bridegroom endured all the agonies of heart ordinarily ascribed to bartered brides.

After the wedding the couple started for the tiger's home; all the way the unhappy bride wept and sang: "How far off is our home, big head?