XXXVIAse stood lost and appalled at the wedding reception. Nat had had so many engraved invitations sent out that Nellie had commented, “He must have just used the tax list.” Nat had hired a caterer from Trent to provide the feast, complete with champagne. The good friends, the neighbors, the relatives, were filing by the tables of gifts. In their esteem and affection for Ase and Nellie, the Grange had dipped into its treasury and sent a table service of plated silver in its own red imitation leather box. All over the township the women had set to and made their gifts for the Linden girl, a lace-trimmed pincushion, three kitchen dish towels, a cross-stitched hand towel, a set of calico pot holders, a matchholder with two sandpaper cats, one large, one small, and the caption, “Don’t scratch
