Boston is thought such a
curse as nothing can exceed it (and looked on as a dismal spectacle);
yet she by her good nature, gravity, and strict virtue convinces all (so
much as the fleering Beaux) that it is not her necessity but her choice
that keeps her a Virgin. She is now about thirty years (the age which
they call a _Thornback_) yet she never disguises herself, and talks as
little as she thinks of Love. She never reads any plays or Romances,
goes to no Balls or Dancing-match (as they do who go to such Fairs) to
meet with Chapmen. Her looks, her speech, her whole behaviour are so
very chaste, that but once, (at Governor's Island, where we went to be
merry at roasting a hog) going to kiss her, I thought she would have
blushed to death.

"Our Damsel knowing this, her conversation is generally amongst the
women (as there is least danger from that sex) so that I found it no
easy matter to enjoy her company, for most of her time (save what was
taken up in needle work and learning French &c.) was spent in Religious
Worship. She knew Time was a dressing-room for Eternity, and therefore
reserves most of her hours for better uses than those of the Comb, the
Toilet, and the Glass.

"And as I am sure this is most agreeable to the Virgin Modesty which
should make Marriage an act of their obedience rather than their choice.
And they that think their Friends too slow-paced in the matter give
certain proof that lust is their sole motive. But as the Damsel I have
been describing would neither anticipate nor contradict the will of her
parents, so do I assure you she is against Forcing her own by marrying
where she cannot love; and that is the reason she is still a Virgin."

The ideas of the old critic would hardly commend themselves in their
entirety to modern times; yet they hold a germ of truth.

Marriage customs among the early colonists presented some curious
contrasts. The practice of "bundling," probably imported from Wales, was
long extant in the rural districts; yet in the same district in which
this custom was most prevalent there was another practice of the
opposite extreme of prudery, whereby those who were passing through the
first and even intermediate stages of courtship were forced to "do their
spiriting" in the presence of the household, the only license of
propinquity granted to them being the privilege of whispering their
words through a hollow stick about six feet long, known as a
"courting-stick." The use of