El
itlrrt tilt.
HOW I CAME TO BE MARRIED.
I promised William Ilepburno to tell him
how I came to be married, end as it was mail
er an odd way, - perhaps it will amuse the pub
lic ; so hem goes! nikly name is Thomas Peti
tion Stevens; I was born and bred in Connec
ticut, taught my letters, and the "three Its,
Readin', Ritin', and 111011[160c" in a district
school house; learned Latin Greek, and Alge
bra of old Parson Field ; and 'grew tobncoo
enough.on my father's farm, before I was
twenty to help me squeeze through the. college
course at old Yale.
There I ftilind myself one commencement
day, having ed thy
,third oration to a
blooming audience in the galleries, and a grim
crowd below, the happy possessor of a sheep
skin, a blue ribbon, a wooden spoon, two dol
lar's and fifty-six cents, and two suits of.clothes,
one very shabby, and one pie-new. •The
world .was all before me where to choose,' as
it says in the primer; and I decide to go
up into Colebrook, and see if my maternal tin
cle Seth Dowens, wanted a man to help get in
rowan. I paid two dollars-end-fifty __centa_ to_
get there, and landed on the door step with
nothing Cut my own personal attractions to re-
Commend me. However, Uncle Dowens was
as glad to see me as if I had six dollars in
stead of six cents in my left band waiscoat
pocket, and hired me for the late haying on
the , spot, and I set up a singing school in the
red school house the next Saturday night.—
When the baying was over, I staid a few weeks
to see what I could turn my. hand-to, arid Un
cle DowenS being on the , school. committee,
through his influence I was made principal of
Colet<ook Academy when the winter term be
gan, aril having a very pretty set of girls to
teach, I made myself and my services so ac
ceptable to parents and guardians, that I hold
the place to this day, three years from then.
One day Inst spring, I eat on the stoop of
Uncle Dowens's house, thinking of nothing in
a very resolute way, with discussive seasons
of listning to a brown thrush thathid in
sonic neighboring tree, the - nee giyPg out all
manner of comic illustratioili-ory other
bird's musical powers ; bitting off, with gay
sarcasm, the robin, oriole, and whippoorwill ;
even giving the faint peep of a dew wet chick
lost in the grass, the warning cry of a hawk,
or the love lore thrill of a song-sparrow, with
here and there a pewit, a blackbird, or the li
quid frolic of a bobOlink's song, mimicked, ex
aggerated and interspsead with its own deliri
ous marble, full of spring and its sweet exulta
tion. I was lapsing out of tho thrush's con
cert into nothingness again, when a quick lit
tle patter, like a hail storm coming down stairs
• woke me up, and at my elbow stood the litho
shape of LiiiY . Dolines, my speeinlcouSin, and
a peculiar little bit of womanhood as one might
see in a life-time. 'Get up Tom !' quoth the
green sun-bonnet. want you to take a walk
with me.' I was rather in a quietist state
just then, but who ever thought of resisting
that clear voice, with such a decisive tone and
flawless ring?
, where are you going, Lizzy ?' said I, after
we had traveled silently, like people in fairy
stories, half through Uncle Downes's farm.—
•0h !' said she, recolecting herself, or rather
me, •I'm going to Asa Burt's lot, after sonic
columbine plants, and you may carry the bas
ket.' Graccious princess !' retorted I, •accept
my dovoirs, and put your foot upon my neck,
if it pleases you.' It doesn't' said the princess;
.•1 only want you to behave like a man, and
not wait next time for a lady's request, before
you offer' help. At this 1 whistled slightly, and
rubbed my Minds; Lizzy had a way of speaking
truth that was—well—plain ! but she knew it,
and turned her rosy face round to me with the
divi nest smile of intelligence and sweetness.
'Don't mind it Tom, it is all for yo good,
and you can't get angry with me, you know.'
01' course I couldn't, such a, face its that wits
talismanic; besides she was n(y cousin : and,
it is a singular fact in the natural history of
man, that though that there are no people on
earth one gets so entirely and
.utterly disgus
ted and out of temper with as disagreable and
intrustive cousins; it is yet quite out of the na
ture of things to be disturbed by a 3 oung,
pretty; smiling cousin, however saucy, It
demonstrates most convincingly the old Scotch
• proverb. "Bluld's thicker than water." All
the nfliinities of ancestry, all the tender asso
ciations of childhood, all the nameless sympa
thies that at•e only existent between relatives,
spring up to harmonize cousins; and other
blood beats more warmly toward its severed
title in the pulse of a relation—except, as I
said before, the disagreable ,ones. - So I not
poly rti l frained from getting vexed at LiZzy's
'reproof, but submitted 'with' a' siveei huraility.
and would have kissed the rod, had it, been
required.
'Do you hoar that thrush, Tom 2'• broke in
thMlittly, upon my meditation.. 'Yeti; ma'am
I have been listening to it this hour, .froth the
east stoup." a lazy creature you are !
spe rdiug a whole - hour in mortal idlent ; ss, this
1,,c01y day.' • 'Not a bit of it,' Mademoiselle ;
my meditations in that stoop were .of the most
!EMI
useful character; noth ng less than r Skillful
analysis (mental, of murse,) of the vibratory
power of air, and its probable capabilities in
mechanick.' .0111 Ton, TOM ! can't you let
schoolmastering alone, on Saturdays? and
such a celestial Satut day as this; look there,
if you want a better meditation than your an
alasis.'
I did look up tl - ''ougli the slim, 'gray bran
ches of the wood t.'tWere skirting, and there,
on the leafless bough of a tall hicory tree, sat
two wild. pigeons, eying us with soft. shy glan
ces, stooping.theirgraceful shining necks, end
drring'them up again with a native pride,
no unlike that of my cempannion, though I
OP. her of being anything hove-like I A few
steps on the dead leaves started the pretty
creatures from their perch, the dull blue
plumes shot suddenly into white, and black
and gray, and slowly they lit, some few rods
off, on a fir tree, while we went on our way. •
`Do you know, Tom," said Lizzy, I have a
theory about birds, and people, I think ev
ery one is like some bird. Could you guess,
now who a wood pigeon always ninkei me
think of?" knoW who has that same way
of drawing up her head, Miss Lizzy ; no other
than your far self' Nonsense I an) no more
like thirt pigeon than I um like a turkey ; nor
as much, for I can gobble inimitably, to the
intense rage of all the turkeys in our barn
yard No indeed, I am much more like an
oriole ; look nt that one, how it dashes aslant
the elm boughs, and makes a descent into the
hollow below, like a flake of fire; that's the
way I drop into our stupid sewing societies
here,' and make the old ladies' hair stand
end with my i bsurdities. No lif yon do not
recognize our Colebrook wood-pigeon, I shall
not help yon.' -Then I shall never know-e - 7V 4 '
joined I, in a tone of Mock lamentation. 'Oh!
yes, you'll discover for yourzelf, some time,'
laughed Lizzy, quietly climbing a fence lie
tween the honie•fermqud Asa's lot. 'Why,
Liziy, you are too quick ! I was just offering
to help you, and you are over.' never will
have any help, sir, over a fence ; what is the
use of being treoutary girl, if you cannot cross
a fence without help?' - Not much, indeed' in
this New England, where every acre field is
fenced ; but Lizzy, look ! herp are columbines
enough for you.'
As, 1 ipo'ic, we had reached the, centre of
the littie•meadow through which crept a slow,
bright stream, keeping the grass about it green
er th.,in the sea, and set thick with blue violets
and golden cowslips ; while on the drier banks
ot,moss and turf that Skirted the marshy bar
of the brook, hundreds of sunny adders'-tong
ues flaunted their yetlow turbans, iill jdrbpped
with garnet in the spring winds, and.stitl fur
ther buck, among budded It - Tines and sweet
fern, myriads ofauemons, fair and'frail, bent
languidly to the warm breath of the
,south,
seeming just ready, so aerial were there
shapes to take flight from their rest upon earth.
On the inner edge of the meadow - a great gray
rock abutted from the Hi side right on to the
greensward ; about its base clustered a quaint
crowd of brown flowered trilliums, and the del
icate straw-bells of May—while on its ledges,
from every crack and shelf were a grain of
earth could harbor, sprung -Innumerable col
umbines of the brightest scarlet and gold,
swayilig, and dancing, and tossing their jew
eled heads like veritable fairy princesses, so
full of laughter and delight, that you waited
involuntarily to hear the gay peal of musical
mirth from their tiny bells, and fancied on
each new sigh of the fingrant air, a far off
echo from their tinkling in some distant field.
Here my task began, and in a few minutes
Lizzy's basket was tilled to the brimb with
roots, and her hands with the blossoms—fit
representatives of her gay brilliant, graceful
self, ns she stood poised on a ledge of the rock .
—her.sun-boonet hanging by one string, her
face burning with the warm flush of youth and
health, her blue eyes glowing deeply in the
sun-light, mid her soft chestnut hair coiling in
lustrous rings about her throat, lifted by the
light win 1, and melted to living gold wherev
er a sunbeam kissed it.
I know I stood there with mouth and eyes
wide open, like. the sun•strnck fool I was,
'glowering' at Lizzy, who must have had sonic
idea of my condition, for suddenly she began
to descend the rock with free, firm steps, like
a chamois (at least f I suppose so, vide Buffon)
and I remembered afterward, as, ono does re,
membered things seen and not perceived, that
there we's a furitive smile glittering In the cor
ners of her eyes. As for me, I was altogether in
a maze, for the idea had suddenly taken posses.
sion of me that I was in love . ,'titittrally in good
earnest, in love with my cousin Lizzy ! Every
thing I had the presence of mind to recollect,
favored that idea. ' Did I not obey her like a.
bond-slaie ? was I not always so lonely at Un
cle Downs's when she went away adrinr-'
ed her beauty more than that of any' other
1 admired her mind in' ets active,
earnest, and noble 'developinent.
Her character had (mutts, to he sure, a need
of some small fetninti Virtnesy hitt love would
teach her thogo.—Ah did She love me ?-Tomf
are you asleep?' pealed from the lips of which
I had been dreaming. 'N- o, Lizzy, I was
thinking.' Conte a few steps further, then,
takd'l will find you a better place to think, for
4sl'elizArt '4l - sl'A N),' ,
I •
if yOu had eves to see, there is a hornet's nest
visible about a foot from his head; in that ma
ple sapling, and you are in what the tle79a' ,
pet's call a precarious situation.' • 'SO re•lnT
thought, 1 1 1 - o:lifyself, adding aloud, nm bound
to follow you, mademoitlelle; only lead_ me.'
A tnief walk over the green field brought
US to its upper corner, where the brook leap
ed and chattered over a stony bed, before it
sung itself to sleep in the.silent chasuel below.
Ovgy this little nook stood two great apple•
trees; rosy with bloom, Milling the air with
their delicate and peculiar ordor, and all mur.
murous with honey-{'gees, :whose loving labor
song only lightened the cool silence of the
shadow and the perfume; while the little
brook's laugli toned itself to a bobofink's voice,
that' echoed its mad mirth bitek agrin from
the nearest fence post. 'Sit down,' said My
liege lady, it its too pleasant not to be en
joyed.'
I seated myself on the turf, still in a dreaM,
while Lizzy bathed her hands and face in the
cool water, aiid anchored her flowers to a stpAie
on.the edge of the stream to keep them frOin
fading. She came back to me looking as fresh
and, lovely as the spray of pink apple-blossonis
dho held in her hand, and, seating herself be
side- me, began to talk about. them. Tier
entirel3 , unembarrassed air gave me a sort of
'shiver, but I listened. 'Aren't these blossoms
very pretty, Tom? 'There is something especi
ally fascinating to me about 'apple-blows,' ns
Uncle Asa calls them; they are so refined, so
gracious, 'so home-like; withal softly. and
warmly tinted, and of such delicate scent, a
little bitterness about it. just enough to make
it piquant, not insipid: a sort of common
sense, do you understand? And then they are
so full of proinise for future winter firesides:
I hove a vision of a whole cider-barrel and ten
apple-pies in the very cluster I hold! but really
I nm serious about their beauty and expression•
my flowers will do well to mate the wild pigeons
won't they?'
As she spoke nn oriole flashed across the
meadow, anal her own comparison for herself
made a liko'flash accross my thoughts; how
beautiful, hciw piquant she was'! and oh!
Thomas Petition Stevens, what a fool you .
were! dyed in the grain! I lumbered on to my
James before her, I don't remember how, and
without one word of wnrning gasped out:—
•0h Lizzie% I love you to distraction, can't
you love me ?' •
Her faceAvits absolutely pale with surprise,
then a wild and flitting fens swept over it, I
could see she thought me suddenly crazy, and
the,hot tears-began to fill my eyes, man that
Livi!! I suitpose she saw, then, I was in
earnest; for she blushed most beautifully,
then bent her face down in both her little
hands, and began—oh reader pity me !:•-••
actually to laugh :—laugh till • the...red blush
spread to the very parting of her linir,toleir
ed tifeslMider throat,. the small ear,7•atid—nt
length the White fingers. It was too much;
I could not bear it; I became a man again.
and something very like a thrill of anger
brought me to my feet. At this Lizzie looked
up, her eyes full of tears from long laughing,
and her face radient with dimpling mirth,
and yet a sweet shadow of pity and surprise
upon it. She held out her hand to me—how
could I help taking it? or sitting quietly down •
beside her, very much in the state of a water
cure patient after the first douche ? 'Dear
Tom,' said she in a gentle, laughter-wearied
voice, 'do forgive me, but really I could not
help it; what does nil you this morning?'
'Nothing but what I just told,' said I, in a
sulkey-dignified manner, that was too much
for LizzY's seriousness; a little shock of laugh
ter shook her again, and brought out new
tears, which she wiped away soberly, and
'clasping her hands over the handkerchief look
ed round at me with a grave face, through
which the comic air flickered, and discompos
ed me: 'Tom, you aro very queer; I cannot
believe you really thought yOu were in ear
nest 1"But I was,' said I Infying by this
time become di-posed to hit* -tragedy;
love you desperately, devotedly, and if you
choose to laugh at the life-long misery of a
fellow-being I can only hope you can never
knet`V by experience how to sympathise with
such misery I' Poor Lizziel she had to bite
tier scarlet lips full a minute before sIM could
speak- 7 '1161111Y, Tom, Itho not think you know
either me or yourself, or you.would not have
fancied—what you Seem to have. May I ask
who long you—have been• in this' dispetate
state.?' 0,. the, wricked:little '-witCh - 1 that
question was uttered-in the,sintplest, 'gravest.
tone, but I felt the satire to'its lull extent.
over i i , no other phrase expresses
it. 4 1V14-1' said I, 4i4,not,,lcnov it,„cor.
this Morning; but I have felt.
uncOnclouely, this long time.'" Toni;' :Tom,
don't be Metaphysically `abSerd 1, if you
1?C, 10810 kceK this side of , terms. , „,
Can teliyou leen:l'o6h* you- have. been
feeling unoonciously this not
only do net love ime , but yoiidelleVe somebody
else I! I drew.lOng ‘
good
as to-explain!'' , 'I menu to,' replied Lizzie;
'only tarn•retind•sol can see yon, fcif I, inuSt
Catechise little: I novo. , eau !iarrtoigiiQ with
tint interindes for ten minutes.together. 'First
I-em to prove you don't love me. You ad-
Mire' tae, I dare say, but that is nothing, apt
even : the first step, for you would admire r a
-prettier, picture More. When I first kriew
y 0,416. 6 .01 not/lifro me, yonr • instpets re
belled against my character, 1 saw it before I
had known youNrcrionthi is it not BO ?' Do
You 'think that is fair, Lizzie ? 1 did not know
you, titen-4. douldrnot judge.' That is not
my i nridweivlom !' •Well, if you well have it
l ‘ ponfess I 'felt a little—afraid of you, perhaps
not sure that you might not hurt me any me-
men t.'
'That will pass, and you may tmewer my
next question to yourself; Whether those very
1
instincts have ever ceased to keep a witness
among them against me, or my nature as you
see it. If I bad loved yoti, I Should have lust
all these traits toward you, I should have
ceased to rule, to criticise, to condemn.,
An idea struck me at that moment, and I
did not look at Lizzy, but I felt her voice
was not quite steady when she began again.
'ilifyou love me, there are a thousand ways
in which I 6 bould have seen and put an .end
to it before now. You would never have been
so meek, and so easily obedient. A man who
loves never looses his aenso of domination; if
he obeys, it is for beseeching caresses,
for love's sake, not because lie recognises a
stronger nature than' his own; and you know
I am stronger than you in several traits."
'Amen,' said I, rather satirically. 'Now,
don't he disagreeable, Tom, I am striving for
your good, as Deacon Mather says when he
'tutors' hiS boys. You don't love me for still
another reason, Unit you never thought of it
till this morning. Is that love ? born of a
spring days's idleness, the fickle caprice of
sunshine and the south-Wind ? Nonsense ! it
is only an apt, illustration of Dr. Watts' truism
that
"Pntrtn qimie mischief Ftill
For idlo 'hands to do
Won't wince, for it is a fact. Honestly,
now, did you ever think of making love to me
when you had any thing else to do ? I see
you can't answer, and that is speech enough.
Besides, if you had loved me, you never would
have asked me as you did; you would, have
considered me before yourself, and- led me
carefully and tenderly toward taking the one
all decisive step of a woman's life.'
I gave a long sigh, I was becoming con
vinced, And convinced of something Liizie did
not intend to prove. 'Do you acknowledge,
Tom 2'
'Y es, I suppose I must, but really Lizzy,
I thought I loved you, and I'm .not sure
yet.'
hope you do love me, after, a moderate
fashion, but Ali tire not in love with me, as
intend to prove to you in the second place,
because you are in love with somebody else !'
'Lam resigned !' said I, inwardly amused
at her confident tone, and, be it acknowledg•
0, a little terrified also; fur I began, under
her minute questioning, to be partly concious
of—no matter what, yet.
'Now, I expect you to be - s as honest ns you
have hitherto shown yoursey, Tom ; for I am
going to question more closely thnn before.
You have had dreams—all men and womO'n
have—of a home and a future; besides I know
,you went, not six weeks ago, to look at Pea
'eon Mather's new house upon the hill. Yes,
don't disclaim ! I know it with an eye.to your
architectural sketches, but did not your
drettins come back there ? Was there not a
figure dimly visible at the long window, a
face turning to the gate expectantly, and a
pair 'Of neat and busy hands in the 'house
wife skep' ? Now, were they nobody's
hands ?'
rbegan to feel rather restless; how come
she to know what I thought ?
'Moreover, is there no lady among your
acquaintances with whom you feel an entire
Sense of quiet,.rest, and freedom; whose en
terance into ever so stiff and cold a room
gives it a kindly aspect, like the sudden liting
of a wood fire? No one of whom you think,
when you are tired, on sad, as a comforting
and soothing presence; no eyes to which you
turn for sympathy in the expression of thought
and alwrys find it; no hands from which you
expect to receive the thousand nameless acts
of forethought and comMdration that only
love prompts ?'
' I had thought to some' purpose, and was
half convicted, but not fully enoreto say so.
'Go on Lizzy ! I like to hear you ( ,_' said I af:
footing ha incredulous laugh.
'You are not honest,' repled my' catechist,
!your laugh was in a false key; it betrays you;
001 will go on: Is there not 'one person
whoin you fool a constant wish to sh lter from
all the hardiness of life, to protect, t : guard,
id strengthen?, *hose image connects itself in
some ivtiy with . every woo!, offthe future,
withbut whose over recurring idea neither
present nor future *enter Into your imagin
ing? in' h whom yOu un t OotinclitisTY • hope ?-L-
Moreoy.er, is there'no one WlMin' yoUr heart
tells you, , with undeniable instinct, ' lot's you
as a man'aheuld . he loved— r With entire, de'vo
lion and puretonderneso, a patient, faith and
a sorrowful constancy, that you rely on with
out acknoweledging it? Do you not trust her
as,you did your mother?' Is she not a Part of
yourself,so truly, that,, till sonic sudden light
should awaken you, you could' not perceive
you lov,ed her? ; Are' ,uot her eat der.
eyes—
They're not dark! they are gray.' Now t '
Lizzy laughed indeed,and I, too. The Ay girl!
I was quite in her power.
'My dear Tom, dO you suppose I Lave not
known this three months thnt you were very
quietly eliding (not falling) in love w; t'; Helen
Stanton? 'Of course I' saw it, and Ld half
the village. As for your exploit this ip.,rning,
I think I have fully accounted for 'Lit; and
now, having shown you to yours , 2lf, and
brought you to confession, do you f.J:ive my
laughter? I own it was all unkind. Ida how
could I help it?'
I don't need' to forgive you, Lizzy,' said I.
k You hove done me a great service. i wonder
at myself.' •
'Don't wonder, but act, Tom. Iha , l no au
thority to say what I did about Ifelk'n',3 liking
you, but my own observation, and I :t:1 by no
means infallible. I shall not laugh il.'she re
jects you, I assure you.'
This suggestion .made me thoronc.llly Un
quiet. I could no longer repress an i-nperti
nence I, had been trying to utter for last
fifteen.rninutes. We shall see,' tinid assum
ing a miserable caricature of coot lonce',--
'And, by the wny, Lizzy, how cam, you to
he.sorEeP read in the staticies of di• tender
passion, as you have shown yourself I ac
companied the question with a rnalicir 'is stare
nt Lizzy, whose face was instantly louble•
dyed with crimson; ' and her hands working
relentless destruction with the bough•fapple
,
blossoms.
'Why— to be honest—l don't—oh ! I meant
Helen, by the wild pigeon, Tom,'
•V's, I know you did; but I dim n. , • to be
blinded by that flash of the oriole Where
did yonr wisdom come from, Lizzy
see—dear me ! how silly' I am!
Tom, I am going to he married to George
Stanton, end that is what I brought ou out
here to tell you, and then wasted two mortal
hours tellin you that you were in love with
his sister! It is too absurd
Lizzy's words came like rockets 4,n,1 her
face dropped in her hands, as she li—shed—
no—one hand, for I had taken the olhor, and
absolutely was kissing it, I Was so Ver:: glad.
George Stanton was the finest fellow 'in the
county, fully worthy of Lizzy, had ju-t finish
ed his thelogical course, and was to ifo in
stalled in Colebrook next month. It was ex
actly the best thing, and, as soon as I found
words, I told her so, adding, soinewht.t ruef
ully, 'I hardly expected to be congratulating
you on this subject, two hours ago, but I am
sincerely glad Lizzy.' -
~,
She looked up with a little sweet laugh,
and thanked me; so, rising from the tUrf, wo
gathered up the basket and the Columbines,
and threaded our way homeward through the
woods, silently enough. '
That r4ttAtibt down to Mr. St futon's,
and persuaded it4len to go to singiug-school
with , -me. I dt . ! . 4know if they bad ti- class
without the mt ter, or not. I never asked;
for instead of . 'ing in the red school' house,
..
Hellen and I i't;re sitting on a pine / log, by
the edge of the river,
„in the moonlight; and
after a great many devices of speech, I bad
nt last managed to ask her the same question .
I pot to Lizzy in the morning, only in rather
a different w;,ly, and much more uneasily.
She, too, hid her face, but tears came drop
ping through the slender fingers, and she did
not forbid me to take away the hands or dry
the tears; but looked up at me with her clear
eyes, so full of unutterable love, tlat they
seemed to have grown blue instead ~ f grey,
-and said softly, 'I wonder what I Imre ever
done, to be made so happy !' Well for me
that I felt, with no slight heart-ache, what
the tender humility of her speech implied,
though she did not know it herself. If I
could not now efface the past, - I
would try
faithfully to make her future blessed.
Wo were married last autumn. First old
Father Mather married George and tizzy;
then George did the same kind ollice.(er Helen
and me.' My wild-pigeon still: kevps that
name; and Lizzy and I have once in a while
a little clash that Ilelen cannot under,tand.—
Only yesterday, when I *asked Mrs. Stanton
to admire the comfortable arrangen.tilts of
my new houlm (one of Deacon
_blather's) she
informed me she 'could not sympathize with
the life-long misery of, a fellow creature!' I
had to laugh in spite of myeelf.
That, patient reader, is the way I came to
he married._ . .
THAT ELOPMHENT CASH NOT so BAP AS RE
POILTED.—WO . statdd on Wednesday, Lays the
TOY, Traveler, that a woman - recently arrived
at Chicagis; - from Kansas; with the drad body
of 'her htehand, which sbo 17118 taking East
for burial. Atid that on the route she tell in
With a young man and on their arrival at
Chic'ago, they went off together, leaving the
dead body of the husband in the dt , po . t. 13ot
it seems that the latter part of the statement
was erroneous, for the woman forwardedthc
dead body on, and it .arrived in thiA city on'
'aturday, and 15 - tic arried with her now hus
band • p,n Monday, ,and the funeral of the do
eased husband. way held at ltiaterf6rd on
Tuesday last.
mxt2i
El