University of Virginia Library

17. CHAPTER XVII.

It was on one of our superlatively doleful ague days,
when a cold drizzling rain had sent mildew into our
unfortunate bones; and I lay in bed, burning with
fever, while my stronger half sat by the fire, taking his
chill with his great-coat, hat, and boots on, that Mr.
Rivers came to introduce his young daughter-in-law.
I shall never forget the utterly disconsolate air, which,
in spite of the fair lady's politeness, would make itself
visible in the pauses of our conversation. She did
try not to cast a curious glance round the room. She
fixed her eyes on the fire-place—but there were the
clay-filled sticks, instead of a chimney-piece—the half-consumed

wooden crane, which had, more than once,
let our dinner fall—the Rocky-Mountain hearth, and
the reflector, baking biscuits for tea—so she thought it
hardly polite to appear to dwell too long there. She
turned towards the window: there were the shelves,
with our remaining crockery, a grotesque assortment!
and, just beneath, the unnameable iron and tin affairs,
that are reckoned among the indispensables, even of
the half-civilized state. She tried the other side, but
there was the ladder, the flour-barrel, and a host of
other things—rather odd parlour furniture—and she
cast her eyes on the floor, with its gaping cracks, wide
enough to admit a massasauga from below, and its inequalities,
which might trip any but a sylph. The
poor thing looked absolutely confounded, and I exerted
all the energy my fever had left me, to try to say something
a little encouraging.

“Come to-morrow morning, Mrs. Rivers,” said I,
“and you shall see the aspect of things quite changed;
and I shall be able to tell you a great deal in favour of
this wild life.”

She smiled faintly, and tried not to look miserable,
but I saw plainly that she was sadly depressed, and
I could not feel surprised that she should be so. Mr.
Rivers spoke very kindly to her, and filled up all the
pauses in our forced talk with such cheering observations
as he could muster.

He had found lodgings, he said, in a farm-house, not
far from us, and his son's house would, ere long, be completed,
when we should be quite near neighbours.

I saw tears swelling in the poor girl's eyes, as she
took leave, and I longed to be well for her sake. In

this newly-formed world, the earlier settler has a feeling
of hostess-ship toward the new comer. I speak
only of women—men look upon each one, newly arrived,
merely as an additional business-automaton—a
somebody more with whom to try the race of enterprize,
i. e. money-making.

The next day Mrs. Rivers came again, and this time
her husband was with her. Then I saw at a glance
why it was that life in the wilderness looked so peculiarly
gloomy to her. Her husband's face shewed but
too plainly the marks of early excess; and there was
at intervals, in spite of an evident effort to play the
agreeable, an appearance of absence, of indifference,
which spoke volumes of domestic history. He made
innumerable inquiries, touching the hunting and fishing
facilities of the country around us, expressed himself
enthusiastically fond of those sports, and said the country
was a living death without them, regretting much
that Mr. Clavers was not of the same mind.

Meanwhile I had begun to take quite an interest in
his little wife. I found that she was as fond of novels
and poetry, as her husband was of field-sports. Some
of her flights of sentiment went quite beyond my
sobered-down views. But I saw we should get on
admirably, and so we have done ever since. I did not
mistake that pleasant smile, and that soft sweet voice.
They are even now as attractive as ever. And I had
a neighbour.

Before the winter had quite set in, our little nest
was finished, or as nearly finished as anything in
Michigan; and Mr. and Mrs. Rivers took possession of

their new dwelling, on the very same day that we
smiled our adieux to the loggery.

Our new house was merely the beginning of a house,
intended for the reception of a front-building, Yankee-fashion,
whenever the owner should be able to enlarge
his borders. But the contrast with our sometime
dwelling, made even this humble cot seem absolutely
sumptuous. The children could do nothing but admire
the conveniences it afforded. Robinson Crusoe exulted
not more warmly in his successive acquisitions than did
Alice in “a kitchen, a real kitchen! and a pantry to
put the dishes!” while Arthur found much to praise in
the wee bed-room which was allotted as his sanctum in
the “hic, hæc, hoc,” hours. Mrs. Rivers, who was
fresh from “the settlements,” often curled her pretty
lip at the deficiencies in her little mansion, but we had
learned to prize any thing which was even a shade
above the wigwam, and dreamed not of two parlours or
a piazza.

Other families removed to Montacute in the course of
the winter. Our visiting list was considerably enlarged,
and I used all my influence with Mrs. Rivers to persuade
her that her true happiness lay in making friends
of her neighbours. She was very shy, easily shocked by
those sins against Chesterfield, which one encounters
here at every turn, did not conceal her fatigue when
a neighbour happened in after breakfast to make a three
hours' call, forgot to ask those who came at one
o'clock to take off their things and stay to tea, even
though the knitting needles might peep out beneath the
shawl. For these and similar omissions I lectured her
continually but with little effect. It was with the

greatest difficulty I could persuade her to enter any
house but ours, although I took especial care to be impartial
in my own visiting habits, determined at all sacrifice
to live down the impression that I felt above
my neighbours. In fact, however we may justify certain
exclusive habits in populous places, they are strikingly
and confessedly ridiculous in the wilderness. What
can be more absurd than a feeling of proud distinction,
where a stray spark of fire, a sudden illness, or a day's
contre-temps, may throw you entirely upon the kindness
of your humblest neighbour? If I treat Mrs. Timson
with neglect to-day can I with any face borrow her
broom to-morrow? And what would become of me, if
in revenge for my declining her invitation to tea this
afternoon, she should decline coming to do my washing
on Monday?

It was as a practical corollary to these my lectures,
that I persuaded Mrs. Rivers to accept an invitation
that we received for the wedding of a young girl, the
sister of our cooper, Mr. Whitefield. I attired myself
in white, considered here as the extreme of festal elegance,
to do honour to the occasion; and called for
Mrs. Rivers in the ox-cart at two o'clock.

I found her in her ordinary neat home-dress; and
it required some argument on my part to induce her to
exchange it for a gay chally with appropriate ornaments.

“It really seems ridiculous,” she said, “to dress for
such a place! and besides, my dear Mrs. Clavers, I am
afraid we shall be suspected of a desire to outshine.”

I assured her we were in more danger of that other

and far more dangerous suspicion of undervaluing our
rustic neighbours.

“I s'pose they did n't think it worth while to put on
their best gowns for country-folks!”

I assumed the part of Mentor on this and many similar
occasions; considering myself by this time quite an
old resident, and of right entitled to speak for the natives.

Mrs. Rivers was a little disposed to laugh at the oxcart;
but I soon convinced her that, with its cushion
of straw overspread with a buffalo-robe, it was far preferable
to a more ambitious carriage.

“No letting down of steps, no ruining one's dress
against a muddy wheel! no gay horses tipping one
into the gutter!”

She was obliged to acknowledge the superiority of
our vehicle, and we congratulated ourselves upon reclining
à la Lalla Rookh and Lady Mary Wortley
Montague. Certainly a cart is next to a palanquin.

The pretty bride was in white cambric, worn over
pink glazed muslin. The prodigiously stiff under-dress
with its large cords (not more than three or four years
behind the fashion) gave additional slenderness to her
taper waist, bound straitly with a sky-blue zone. The
fair hair was decorated, not covered, with a cap, the
universal adjunct of full dress in the country, placed
far behind the ears, and displaying the largest puffs,
set off by sundry gilt combs. The unfailing high-heeled
prunelle shoe gave the finishing-touch, and the
whole was scented, à l'outrance, with essence of lemon.

After the ceremony, which occupied perhaps three
minutes, fully twice as long as is required by our state

laws, tea was served, absolutely handed on a salver,
and by the master of the house, a respectable farmer.
Mountains of cake followed. I think either pile might
have measured a foot in height, and each piece would
have furnished a meal for a hungry school-boy. Other
things were equally abundant, and much pleasant talk
followed the refreshments. I returned home highly
delighted, and tried to persuade my companion to look
on the rational side of the thing, which she scarcely
seemed disposed to do, so outré did the whole appear to
her. I, who had begun to claim for myself the dignified
character of a cosmopolite, a philosophical observer
of men and things, consoled myself for this derogatory
view of Montacute gentility, by thinking, “All city
people are so cockneyish!”