Time of the Singing of Birds
Page 24
And Cornelia lifted a lovely face and said softly, “Yes, Stormy darling!”
And a couple of steps ahead came Barney’s voice. “Oh, I say, you two, come up to the surface and look around you. This is where we turn in to the farm, and it’s worth seeing. You might not recognize it next time you come this way unless you look around now.”
At first they didn’t hear at all, but the third time he called they came to themselves with a start and quickened their steps.
“Yes, it’s beautiful, especially in the soft dusk,” said Cornelia. “And you’ll just love Margaret’s mother, Stormy.”
“Well, if I have any love left over from loving you, I might try,” said Stormy. “Come on, let’s go in. Say, isn’t that a thrush singing at evening? I haven’t heard a thrush sing for years, but I never forget those silver spoons against cut glass they use for accompaniment. Say, isn’t that some song?”
They marched into the house with arms around one another.
Barney went calling through the house: “Where are you, Sunny’s mother? Where are you Mother Roselle?” And they could hear her calling from upstairs: “Yes, I’m here, Barney dear. Coming at once!”
“Well, we’ve come to get your blessing for another couple, Mother. That is, I think we have. There seemed to be signs that way as we came over. How about it, Stormy? Put it over yet, or am I butting in too soon?”
“You’re butting in, Barn, but I guess it’s all right with me. How about it, Cornelia?”
Cornelia lifted lovely dark eyes and smiled, her face scarlet from all this publicity but very joyous, and twinkled her consent.
“Okay, company, let’s all kneel right here and get that mother-blessing. We’ll need it plenty, I’m sure, as the years go by,” said Barney.
It was Stormy who led the way. They came and stood in line before her, and at his slightly lifted hand they all knelt and bowed their heads.
Mother Roselle always knew how to fit right into anything, and she came close to them, pushed their heads close together, and laid one hand on Barney’s and Margaret’s heads and the other hand on Cornelia’s and Stormy’s heads.
“May the dear Lord bless you, my children,” she said softly, and then after an instant they rose and each of them kissed her cheek.
“Now,” said Barney, “we’re going back to my house and arrange about these weddings. They ought to come off soon, you know, for we don’t know just when we may be called to move on. We don’t want a thing like this hanging fire. We’ve got to decide whether it will be two weddings or one double one. We’ve got to decide where it will be, and who shall officiate, and what we shall wear. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a wedding veil somewhere in my house among the heirlooms. I might wear that. Do you all think it would be becoming over my uniform?”
Hortense and her crowd happened to be driving by the Roselle farm just then, and they heard peals of laughter coming from the front windows, which were open.
“Mercy! What do you suppose they find to laugh about like that in there?” said Hortense.
“Well, if I’m not greatly mistaken, I think you’ll find that Barney is home, and he’s probably down there.”
“Yes,” said Amelia in a kind of triumphant voice. “I saw him arrive, and he had the best-looking soldier with him, even a little taller than Barney, and just stunningly handsome. He’s probably there. I saw Sunny go down and get that Cornelia girl just before dinnertime. They’re probably all there!”
“Oh!” said Hortense and was very quiet for the rest of the evening.
But in the old white farmhouse there was much joy. Sunny’s mother looked up with a smile.
“You would all be very welcome to have the weddings here, of course,” she said with a smile.
“And I know my aunt would say that, too, of course,” said Cornelia, “and perhaps feel hurt if I went somewhere else.”
“You better come to my house,” said Barney. “After all, I’m the one who started all these weddings.”
Sunny gave him a radiant smile, but then she spoke in a quiet voice: “I think that I would like to be married in the church,” she said. “Then we could feel that Barney’s mother was there, sitting right in the middle of the church in the same pew where she sat ever since she was married.”
The look that Barney gave her then was one she would remember always, and so would the others.
“I think that would be nice,” said Cornelia, “then nobody could be hurt. And it certainly would be nice to have the two weddings together. Barney and Stormy have always been so much to each other. How I wish my brother Jim could be here.”
“Of course,” said Stormy. “I’ll see if we can’t arrange for that. How about it, Barn? Don’t you suppose we can do that over the phone, or would we have to go down to Washington to have it fixed?” He was grinning, but the two young men gave a twinkling promise to each other of what they were going to try to do.
“Well, it will be great to have some uniforms, anyway,” said Cornelia. “And if it is in a church, you can just invite anybody who wants to come, and not have to bother about invitations. You couldn’t get them engraved now, very likely, not if we have it in a hurry.”
“And about what we’ll wear,” said Margaret, looking toward her mother, “would your wedding dress be all right?”
“Why, of course,” said her mother. “I’ve always kept it for you, and it fits you nicely. People are not getting a lot of new finery these wartimes.”
“Well, I can wear my mother’s wedding dress. It’s in storage, but I can have it sent for at once. And the veils. Shall we wear veils?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Roselle. “Veils are always lovely to remember. I think mine is still good. It has some real lace on it. Of course, it will be somewhat yellow, but that will make it all the more worthwhile.”
“Why, this is great,” said Cornelia, “getting a wedding all arranged in a few minutes like this. But then that is the way everything has to be done in wartimes, and after all, when the war is over we may learn not to spend so much time on trifles and nonsense. But I think this is going to be pretty, too. There’ll be a few friends we’ll want to ask down. There’s a hotel not too far away for them to come to, isn’t there? And as for a reception, we can just stand at the back of the church after the ceremony and shake hands.”
“Great!” said Sunny. “I was afraid you would want a big reception.”
“Here neither,” said Barney with satisfaction. “But I just want to state here and now that I think Stormy and I have found the two best girls on all the face of the earth. They’ve settled their weddings without a squabble, and they care more about their Lord and their men than they do about style or what the world thinks. Come on now and let’s go home and think it over. There’s another day coming, and Storm, you and I have a few things to arrange. When did they say we had to come down to Washington and be decorated? I’d like to have that over so I could wear my decorations at the wedding, for I don’t much think I’ll flaunt them any other time, except to show them to my grandchildren. Come on now, let’s go down and tell Auntie Kimberly and see how she likes it, and then everybody’s happy from now on.”
So they presently took up their march down the road, and the gang of pleasure-seekers came driving glumly down behind them and passed them.
“There they are,” said Janet Harper.
“Heavens! Isn’t he tall,” said Hortense. “But they didn’t speak. I don’t think that was very nice of them.”
“They didn’t even see us,” said Amelia. “They didn’t see anybody but each other. They were holding hands.”
“I thought your pattern Barney never did things like that,” said Janet Harper.
“Oh, shut up, can’t you, Janet. I have a terrible headache!” said Hortense.
But it presently got around that the wedding was coming off soon, and everybody in town who wanted to come was invited.
“I don’t suppose they knew any better than to think that is good form,”
said Hortense, with her nose in the air. But she arranged to buy a new dress to wear to the wedding to dazzle that New York girl.
Barney and Stormy were called to Washington to receive their decorations and to speak over the radio just three days before the day they had set for the wedding. And the girls arranged to go along. The whole thing was on the radio, of course, and the gang at home furtively and jealously listened to it.
And then the day of the wedding came, and in the morning Jim Mayberry arrived!
It appeared that the two bridegrooms had arranged the whole matter with their superior officers, and Jim was back from his mission and due for a furlough, anyway. So he came in a plane, and Jim was to be best man for both of his old buddies.
And there were other uniforms in the audience besides those three. A lot of the old friends and fellow soldiers from the army, a few sailors. Even the admiral came with a few of his fellow officers who wanted to do honor to the young men who had served so wonderfully in the service.
It was both the young minister and the old one who had the service together, and the whole plan of it had been carefully arranged so that the service would be a testimony to the world, of how Christ could save from sin, what true marriages should be, and how a Christian home should be carried on. It was only a few words, bits of Bible quotations, that carried these great lessons, but they were there, and the gang in the back pew stopped whispering and listened, and more than one besides Amelia Haskell said, “Heavens! If I thought I could have a marriage like that, it would be worthwhile trying to be a Christian and find a fellow who believed such things.”
As they came out from the church, the sun was beginning to set, and the birds were singing their evening songs. Wood thrushes spilling out their silver notes, a lot of other birds.
“I’m glad they are singing,” said Margaret.
“Yes,” said Cornelia as she paused by the car and looked up to the trees by the church, “isn’t it wonderful?”
“Yes,” said Barney solemnly, a beautiful light in his face, “the time of the singing of the birds is come.”
About the Author
GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL (1865–1947) is known as the pioneer of Christian romance. Grace wrote over one hundred faith-inspired books during her lifetime. When her first husband died, leaving her with two daughters to raise, writing became a way to make a living, but she always recognized storytelling as a way to share her faith in God. She has touched countless lives through the years and continues to touch lives today. Her books feature moving stories, delightful characters, and love in its purest form.
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