Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-10-14
MY WEDDING TOUR.

l was only seventeen when Charlie
married me, and / wrote myself for
the first time Mrs. Charles Vail, Jr.,
and saw the initials of the same
blazoned on the end of my new Sar-
atoga trunk, when we started on
our wedding journey. My wedding
journey l can speak of it calmly
now, but the time was when it har-
roWed up my inmost soul To this
day, Charlie becomes wroth when it
is mentioned, and says it is my "con-
founded imaginatioD;" but he knows
and | know we'll, that that is only
one Of those convenient little loop.
holes through which big mascuHnity
can crawl on emergency; and the
facts remaining unchanged and in
disputable, | shall defy Charlie and
state them to the world.
Imagine, then, reader or listener,
who ever you may be, that the last
silken train has swept itself out of
Trinity Chapel, and the last of the
inevitable wedding March, shud-
dered itself out of the big grooming
organ, and that Charlie and | are
married. Also, that the kissing and
crying over is achieved, and the
voices of my husbands sisters and
my maiden aunts, hailing down
blessings on our heads, are happily
lost in the distance-that the only
sounds we hear is the rattle and roar
of an express train laundering east
ward, and | am looking out into the
golden MONDAY, watching the fields
and roads and villages and wood
lands race past US, and sweep back
into stream like running water.
There we sat, two blissful young
fools-but it isn't our bliss, or our
foolish either, that | am going to tell
you-only of the single adventure of
our wedding tour.
Charlie hadn't told me where we
were to go, and / rather liked being
left in ignorance, knowing no more
than that we were being swept away
to some little paradise of our own
it might be an island Of the Hespe-
rides, or Crusoe's kingdom, or Eden
itself. We stopped at a good many
stations by the way, that looked any
thing but paradisical; but | saw
everything through a glass, rosily,
as | sat there by Charles side. The
shadows were growing short, and it
was just noon when we stopped at
some "ville" or other, whose long,
low, struggling buildings, crowding
close upon the track, and the broad,
dusty, village street, branching off
at right angles, are photographed
upon my memory. Not for anything
instrinically remarkable; there were
only good many teams and farm
wagons, and open carriages, and
light carryalls standing about, with
the lazy horses rubbing their noses
against old worm eaten posts, and
plenty of people on the platform,
crowding together for greetings and
good-bys; it was commonplace,
everyday picture enough, and not
even pretty one except in frag-
ments There was a general exodus
from the train, and a rush dinner
ward, as we supposed, toward the
swinging sign of some "house" or
other down the lazy little country
street aud Charlie, looking at his
watch, said it was u o'clock and
didn't want some lunch ?
OF course didn't, but of course
he said l must have it, and imme-
diately started mp. He wouldn't be
five minutes, he said, and | mustn't
move till he came back. l was to
guard our two seats, and let no one
come nigh them, and above all, l
was to sit still, and not be led astray
by any possible warnings to change
cars. "We're going through, y Char
lie remarked, $50 just keep the seats
and don't pay any attention" L
nodded obedience, and Mr., Vail
marched out of the car, leaving me
to peer after him in the crowd, and
catch the last glimpse Of his new
straw hat vanishing down the street
| watched the crowd, when Char
ley was out Of sight, and wondered
over the faces, and built up all sort
Of dreamy speculations upon them,