The Winslow mail., 1897-10-23

T. ;s noon ON a briI1ion+ dow IN Cbris+

1t is noon on brilliant day in Christ
mas week and consequently in the mid
die of the hot season. Outside the grass
is beginning to look burnt up and the
roses and geraniums are too much ex-
hausted from the heat to put forth any
more flowers, but the hardy begonia is
still in full bloom, and the oleanders
have large punches of pink blossoms on
the tops of their tall, willowy stems,
which wave back and forward in the
breeze and exhale delicious perfume,
like that of bitter almonds. In one cor
ner of the churchyard large frangipani
tree bears waxy clusters of pale yellow
flowers at the ends of its cactuslike
branches, while shining out among the
foliage in the government house
grounds opposite is a tall famboyant
tree. which, with it's flame cOlored bios
SONS covering the whole top of the leaf
less tree, looks like a veritable "burn-
ing bush. "
Inside the church has been turned in
to a bower, everywhere palms and
ferns and sweet smelling white flowers.
The bare, barnlike walls are completely
hidden by a mass of greenery, the win
dow sills are filled with blossoms and
the altar rails festooned with maiden
hair and stephanotis, while the lower
half of the east window is perfect
bank of ferns and flowers, above which
may be seen the clear blue sky, fiecked
with white clouds, and the tops of the
trees.
All is pleasant hustle and confusion
within, for great wedding is about to
take place, and all the beauty and fash
ion of the island colony have been sum-
moned to do honor to the governor s
daughter.
The ladies are in the brightest and
freshest of toilets, while varied uni
! formsshelp to enliven the scene.
Everywhere there is buzz of sub
dued, pleasant talk and of delightful
expectation.
The bishop is at the altar, the bride
groom and his best man near the rails
The bridesmaids await the bride i'll the
porch, and in and out and everywhere
among the egation-arrangin
everything, showing guests to their
seats, talking to every one and making
himself generally useful and agreeable
fits the aid de-camp. He has been at
work since before daylight and yet does
not seem at all fatigued, but has a
pleasant smile or kind word for every
one.
Now the music strikes up, and pres
emily the bride appears, leaning on the
arm of her father. The marriage serv-
ice proceeds, the bishop joins the young
couples hands, the vows are taken, the
ring put on, the hymns sung and the
address delivered. Then comes a mo-
ment of silence while the newly mar
ried pair still kneel at the altar rails,
and when one can distinctly hear the
champing of the horses in the carriages
waiting outside and the signing of the
breeze in the tops of the filoa trees.
Then as the young couple rise from
their knees there break forth the joy
GUS strains of the FWedding March. -
AS they pass down the aisle the bride
looks up into the bridegroom s face, and
he, STOPPING over her, murmurs some
thing which only she can hear. The
aid-de-camp sees the look and guesses
the words, and, with renewed energy,
he plunges into the business of mar
shaling the procession and escorting the
guests to their carriages, and through
out that long and busy day no one see-
ing his bright, pleasant face and hear
ing his CHEEKY voice could guess that
for him the sun was darkened and the
light of life and hope gone out, and that
to his ears Mendelssohn's "Wedding
March" will forever sound like funer-
al dirge. Sketch.