CHAPTER XXII.
IN WHICH JIM GETS MARRIED, THE NEW HOTEL RECEIVES ITS MISTRESS, AND BENEDICT CONFERS A POWER OF ATTORNEY.
There was great commotion in the little Sevenoaks tavern.

It was Jim's wedding morning, and on the previous evening there had been a sufficient number of arrivals to fill every room.

Mr.and Mrs.Balfour, with the two boys, had come in in the evening stage; Jim and Mr.Benedict had arrived from Number Nine.

Friends of Miss Butterworth from adjoining towns had come, so as to be ready for the ceremony of the morning.
Villagers had thronged the noisy bar-room until midnight, scanning and discussing the strangers, and speculating upon the event which had called them together.

Jim had moved among them, smiling, and returning their good-natured badinage with imperturbable coolness, so far as appearances went, though he acknowledged to Mr.Balfour that he felt very much as he did about his first moose.
"I took a good aim," said he, "restin' acrost a stump, but the stump was oneasy like; an' then I blazed away, an' when I obsarved the moose sprawlin', I was twenty feet up a tree, with my gun in the snow; an' if they don't find me settin' on the parson's chimbly about nine o'clock to-morrer mornin', it won't be on account o' my not bein' skeered." But the wedding morning had arrived.