The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-24

and cOntrlte spirit, "Dut you know, in the long run, it's not likely to come up."
 "What an awful fool Mary will set me down for !" Brown said, running his fingers dejectedly around. the inner edge of his collar and looking at me piteously.
 "Not necessarily" said cheerfully. "I don't think common sense is ever exacted of men in your situation"
 "Women have such an unreasonable horror of a postponed marriage, you know" he continued despondently; "think it's bad omen, will bring bad luck, and all that sort of thing. It really might induce mysteries on Miss Maxwell's part, you know" Browns perturbation eliminated in one of his attacks upon the social and religious regulations of Crooked Greek. I thought I saw way out of his per- plexities for him, but concluded first to read him long delayed lecture: "Brown," I said, very sternly, "hold up. You've said all Pm going to let you say in that direction. Stop meas uring every mans corn in your own bushel measure. You've come down here, like the rest of us, fresh from the crowded centers ot civilization, purblind, soaked in ignorance, satu- rated with prejudice, and promptly set yourself up in judgment on peo- pie you know less about than you do about the Hottentots or Hindus, par ticularly if your women folk happen to be interested in foreign missions. Did you expect to find all the munich pal regulations of a big city ready to your hand down here? Did you ex- pect to find public libraries in the cotton fields, or run against philoso- phers in every corn patch? Did you expect to find clerks and notaries, art leagues and Sunday schools, and all other things that grow naturally out of the necessities of congregated hu- manity, where there's about one edu- cated man to every three square miles? Did you expect to find softly uphol- stered church buildings and comforta- ply salaried shepherds among flocks that have been scattered by the storm whose most distant mutterings you and barely caught? Because there are no sears, no gaping wounds, no waste places where you and l came from to remind ns of the storm of shot and shell that rained down on these people, did you expect to find them as sleek and complacent as nation of army contractors? 1 tell you that until I am ready to show that could have gone through the ordeal these people have gone through without blanching, until l can prove that I could have brought at least an equal amount of patient endurance to bear upon the dreary task of making bricks without straw, feel like standing with uncovered head in the presence of the men and women who, denied the mercy of bullet or sword, have had laid on them the bitter burden of sit ting, like Cinderella, among the ashes, while her more favored sisters revel in the light and luxury of the tortu- nate. Tve been over all the ground you're treading on now, Brown, and if you were about to be married to a city belle, who couldn't possibly en- ter into the solemn compact without a striped awning and soft carpet spread from curb to church door, I shouldn't dare propose way out of the trouble you've made for yourself by bungling over that license. But you've had the good fortune to secure for wife woman who has seen so much of the really stern side of life that conventional regulations and so- ciety shams count for nothing with her. She simply never thinks of them. Miss Maxwell is as brave as she is charming. Cross the river and get married on the sand-bar over on the Louisiana side. You'll be able to boast of an original sort of wedding at least"
 "Married on sandbar!" Brown looked at me stupidly. He could not grasp such an entirely unconventional suggestion at once. "Do you suppose Miss Maxwell would consent?"
 "Consent! My word for it she will think it perfectly lovely idea Try her."
 Brown looked at me with reviving spirit, wrung my hand and said plead ingly:
 "I suppose it would not do for me to go there to-day. Would you un- dertake this last kind office, old fel- low? You'll about have time before dark. Don't let her think me a greater ass than am, you know"
 "Impossible," I answered equivo- cally.
 So it devolved on me to inform Miss Maxwell that unless she pre- ferred postponement she would have to forego the luxury of bridal train and veil, and don garb more suitable to the sandy waste from which she and