The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-05-06
TALE OF TWO WEDDINGS.

l WAS young then, for the first wedding
| am about to describe took place forty
five years ago. l was the minister's wife,
and my husbands parish was in the north
ern part of the State of New York, Just
verging upon the Adirondack region Our
people were mainly simple, home-spun
Scotch folk, and our church belonged to
what was known as the "Seceder" per-
suasion. Many of the people talked the
Gaelic, and all of them retained the Cow
enanter prejudice against hymn-singing
and instrumental music in the house of
God. On Sabbath the precentor stood in
| the little stall made for him beneath the
pulpit, and, tuning fork in hand, led off
the Psalm, reading every two lines.
Though all the people had books not all
Of them could read-and those who could
would not have been willing to see the old
ways forsaken and the reading of the line
abolished.
A little north of us was a colony of
Dutch folk who had no regular settled
minister as yet and were dependent on the
missionaries sent out by the Dutch Re
formed Church. These people came some
times to our meeting and usually counted
on my husband to attend their burials and
perform the marriage ceremony at their
weddings.
The winter of 80 was very cold, and the
deep snow lay upon the ground from Oc-
tober until nearly the first of May. One
bright, moonlight but bitter cold even
ing, having finished my days work of
housekeeping, mending and writing let
ters, and my husband having finished his
work of sermon-writing and committing
oh, what a work it was to write sermon
an hour long every week and then commit
it to memOry!-for our good Scotch folk
would not listen to a read sermon--and
having brought in the wood for the night
and foddered the COW, we were sitting by
the cheerful hickory fire, roasting apples
and cracking nuts and talking over our
affairs, when out on the clear, frosty air
broke the cry: " "Halloo! Halloo the
houser' "There's somebody for me"
said my husband, and, opening the door
he answered: Halloo! what do you
want?' A team and big Open' sleigh, or
rather sled-for it had no sides-stoOd at
the gate and voice from it answered: :
Good evening, Dominic; l came down
to get We to tend a wcddin' up in the
clips Cliffs. Jake Consall wants to
jine Sally Ann Linkumtilter, that lives
down to Squire Houghtalin's, and they
want you to come and splice 'em-there's
a couple of dollars in it, sure. Will ye
Gomez" "Aye, aye" responded my hus-
band, "Ill be out in few minutes"
Coming in, his eyes twinkled with fun as
he said: "I'll warrant that fellow is the
Yankee that has come up from Albany to
teach the cliff school. He's an eye to the
main chance, too. Did you hear him
clinch the invitation to go out this cold
night with the prospect of two-dollar fee :?
Well, with salary of only $500, and the
bairnie there to educate, every dollar
helps" The bairnie was our baby-girl,
about six months old, lying asleep in the
cradle. go Malcolm" said l, Task the
man to come in while I change my dress
and get ready. DO take me and the baby!
l have never been to one of those Dutch
weddings, and it is so lonely in this great,
old house without you"
"But, Susan, it is so cold, and the wee
bairnie-what'll you do with her?'
"She isn't undressed yet, and her slip is
clean; I'll wrap her up well and tuck her
into my muff."
Well, of course he consented; and in
ten minutes we were out on the sled, sit
ting down in the straw, and well covered
with bear-skins and buffalo-robes. The
muffs we wore in those days were very
large-they'd be a curiosity now-and the
baby was very small; so, as | promised, |
tucked her into it and she slept all the
seven miles.
When we arrived, the guests were as
sembled; sitting-room and great kitchen
full. The house was an old-fashioned
| one, with four rooms on the first floor,
with the same above, and over all a great
garrett The sitting room was furnished
with old-style, plain mahogany furniture,
straight backed chairs, heavy tables and a
great bureau nearly five feet high, orna-
mented with brass handles, and almost as
black as ebony with age. Brass fire-dogs,
bright as rubbing could make them, re-
fected the objects around them; bright
fire glowed in the ample fireplace, and
on the floor was a homemade rag
carpet The kitchen was an i'm
mense room, and had a fireplace at each
end of it large enough to hold the
biggest backlog that might be cut in
the primeval forests close at hand. From
the oaken rafters overhead hung strings of
onions, festoons of dried apples, long gar
lands of pumpkins, sides of bacon and
brown hams. In one corner stood looms,
and beside them a great spinning wheel
and Jenny" The beds had been
cleared away from one of the bedrooms on
the first floor, and in it were set the tables
for the entertainment. Loaded with cold
roast turkey and chicken, mince and
pumpkin pies, cole kokes," doughnuts,
jumbles, plain cake, pound-cake, fruit
cake, apples and nuts, they fairly groaned
under the weight of their hospitality.
Soon after our arrival there was a little
stir and clearing of space about the door
that separated the kitchen from the sit
ting.room, and the bridal party came in.
The bride was young and had the bright
ruddy complexion so universal with the
girls on those hills, living active, useful
lives as they did. She was dressed in
some soft material of worsted and silk
the short sleeves and fOur-inch bodice
were dashed with blue, and she wore
q blue sash, and blue morocco
shoes with high heels. The groom was a