Litchfield enquirer., 1873-01-30

AHd Nnen. on the nrSC or December there came up to the Major General in com-. nand a request for leave of absence from Tom Cutts, respectfully referred to Colo nel This, who respectfully referred it to General That, who had respectfully re- ferred 1t to Adjutant- General T'other.- all these dignitaries had respectfully rec ommended that the request be granted. For even iR the sacred purlieus of the top Maj Generals head quarters, 1t was un- derstood that Cutts was going home for no less purpose than the being married to the prettiest and sweetest and best girl
 in Eastern Maine.
 Welli for my part do not think that the aids and their informants were in the wrong about this. Surely that Christ mas Eve, as Laura Marvel stood up with Tom Cutts in front of Parson Spaulding, h presence of what there was left of the Irpp's Cove community, I would have said that Laura was the loveliest bride I eyer saw. She is tall; she is graceful; she has rather startled look when you speak to her, suddenly or gently, but the start led look just bewitches you. Black hair,
 she got that from the Italian blood in her grandmother's family, y,-exquisite blue eyes,-that is a charming combination with black hair,- perfect teeth, and matehless color, and she had 1t all when she was married ,-she was bIushing bride and not fainting one. But, then, what stuff this is,-nobody knew he cared straw for Lauras hair or her check t was that she. looked ''just lovely self-forgetful in all her ways, after that
 lrst start, t,-so eager to know just where she could help, and SO determined to help just there. Why she led all the girls Ill the village when she was only fourteen, because thay loved her so. She was the one who made the rafts when there was q freshet, and took them all out together on the mill-pond. And when the war came, she was, of course, captain ef the girls sewing, packed the cans of pickles and fruit for the Sanitary,-she corresponded with the State Adjutant:- heavens, from morning to night everybody III the village ran to Laura,-not because she was the prettiest creature you ever looked upon, but because she was the kindest, truest, most loyal, and most helpful creature that ever hved,-be the same man or womman.
 Now had you rather be named Laura Cutts or Laura Marvel? Marvel is a good name,-a weird, miraculous sort of name. Cutts Is not much of name. But Laura had made up her mind to be Laura Cutts after Tom had asked her about it,-and here they are standing before dear old Parson Spaulding, to receive his exhorta- tion, ,-and to be made one before God and man.
 . ''Dear Laura How she had laughed with the other girls, all in good-natured way, at the good Parsons exhortation to the young couples. Laura had heard it twenty times,-foi she had ''stood up" with twenty of the girls, who had dared the Enterprise of Life before heri Nay, Laura could repeat, with all the emphasis, the most pathetic passage of the whole,- "And above all, my beloved young friends, first of all and last of all,-let me be- seech you, as you climb the hill of life together, hand with hand, and step with step.-that you will look beyond the erests upon it's summit to the eternal lights which blaze in the infinite heaven Of the Better Land beyond" eTwenty times had Laura heard this passage,.- nay, ten times, I am afraid, had she, in an honest and friendly way, repeated it under strict vows of secrecy, to the edifi- cation of circles of screaming girls. But now the dear child looked truly and loy- ally into tho old mans face, as he went on from word to word, and only thought of him, and how noble and true and pure he was,-and of the Great Master whom he there,-and it was just as real to her and to Tom Cutts that they must look into the Heaven of Heavens for Life and Strength, as Parson Spaulding wanted 1t to be. When he prayed with all his heart, she prayed; what he hoped, she hoped; what he promised for her, she promised for the Father in Heaven;- and what he asked her to promise by word aloud, she promised Loyalty and 
 And Tom Cutts? He looked SC hand some in his uniform. and he looked like the man he was. And in those days, the uniform, if it were only flannel fatigue jacket on private,s back, was as beauti- ful as the fiag,-nothing more beautiful than either for eyes to look upon; and when Parson Spaulding had said the Ben ediction and the Amen, and had kissed Laura, with her eyes full of tears, and when he had given Tom Cutts joy, then all the people came up, in a double line, and they all kissed Laura, and they shook hands with Tom as if they would shake his hands of, and, in the haIf-reticent methods of Tripp's Cove, every lord and lady bright that were in Moses Marvel's parlor, said ''honored be the bravest knight, beloved the fairest fair"
 And there was bunch of laurel hang ing in the middle of the room, as make believe mistletoe. And the boys, who could not make believe even that they were eighteen, so that they had besn left at home, would catch Phebe and Sarah and Hattie and Helen, when by accident they crossed underneath the laurel, and would kiss them, for all their screaming. And soon Moses Marvel brought in waiter with wedding-cake. and Nathan Philbrick brought in waiter with bride-cake; and pretty Hattie Mar vel brought in 8 waiter with currant wine And Tom Cutts gave every girl piece of wedding-crke himself, and made her prom ise to sleep on it. And before they were all gone, he and Laura had been made to write names for the girls to dream upon, that they might draw their fortunes the next morning. And before long Moses Cutts led Mrs. Spaulding out into the great famify-room, and there was the real wedding supper. And, after they had eaten the supper, Bengel's fiddle sounded in the parlor; and they danced and they waltzed and they polked to their hearts content. And so they spent the Christ mas of 1881.
 Too bad, was not it? Toms leave was only twenty days. It took him five to come, it took five to go. After the we'd ding there were but seven little days. And then he kissed dear Laura good-by, with tears running from his eyes and hers; and she begged him to be sure she should be all right; and he begged her to be cer- tain nothing would happen to him. And for near two years they did not see each others faces again.
 CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT.
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