t undoubtedly she had contrived to put on her best attire.
We do not know her age, but she was ever spoken of as a remarkably
pretty little girl, and was probably about seventeen years old.

David did not deem it necessary to dismount, but called upon his "girl"
to jump upon the horse he was leading. She did so. The mother was
powerless. It was a waterloo defeat. In another moment they would
disappear, riding away along the road, which wound through the gigantic
trees of the forest. In another hour they would be married. And then
they would forever be beyond the reach of the clamor of her voluble
tongue. She began to relent. The old man, accustomed to her wayward
humors, instinctively perceived it. Stepping up to David, and placing
his hand upon the neck of his horse, he said:

"I wish you would stay and be married here. My woman has too much
tongue. You oughtn't mind her."

Having thus, for a moment, arrested their departure, he stepped back to
the door, where his discomfited wife stood, and entreated her to
consent to their being married there. After much persuasion, common
sense triumphed over uncommon stubbornness. She consented. David and
his expectant bride were both on horseback, all ready to go. The woman
rather sullenly came forward and said:

"I am sorry for the words I have spoken. This girl is the only child I
have ever had to marry. I cannot bear to see her go off in this way. If
you'll come into the house and be married here, I will do the best I
can for you."

The good-natured David consented. They alighted from their horses, and
the bridal party entered the log hut. The room was not large, and the
uninvited guests thronged it and crowded around the door. The justice
of peace was sent for, and the nuptial knot was tied.

The wedding ceremonies on such occasions were sufficiently curious to
be worthy of record. They certainly were in very wide contrast with the
pomp and splendor of nuptials in the palatial mansions of the present
day. A large party usually met at some appointed place, some mounted
and others on foot, to escort the bridegroom to the house of the bride.
The horses were decorated with all sorts of caparisons, with ropes for
bridles, with blankets or furs for saddles. The men were dressed in
deerskin moccasins, leather breeches, leggins, coarse hunting-shirts of
all conceivable styles of material, and all homemade.

The women wore gowns of very coarse homespun and home-woven cloth,
com