6. "A THANKSGIVING-DAY WEDDING"
DEAR MRS. CONEY,—
. . . I think every one enjoyed our
Thanksgiving programme except poor Gale.
She was grieved, I verily believe, because
Mr. Patterson is not Mormon and could not
take Sedalia and herself also. I suppose it
seemed odd to her to be unable to give way
to Sedalia as she had always done.
I had cooked and cooked. Gale and Zebulon
Pike both helped all they could. The
wedding was to be at twelve o'clock, so at
ten I hustled Gale into my room to dress. I
had to lock the door to keep her in, and I
divided my time between the last touches to
my dinner and the finishing touches to Gale's
toilet and receiving the people. The Lane
party had not come yet, and I was scared to
death lest Sedalia had had a tantrum and
that Mr. Stewart would not get back in time.
At last I left the people to take care of themselves,
for I had too much on my mind to
bother with them. Just after eleven Mr.
Stewart, Mis' Lane, Sedalia, and Pa Lane
"arriv" and came at once into the kitchen
to warm. In a little while poor, frightened
Gale came creeping in, looking guilty. But
she looked lovely, too, in spite of her plaid
dress. She wore her hair in a coronet braid,
which added dignity and height, as well as
being simple and becoming. Her mother
brought her a wreath for her hair, of lilies
of the valley and tiny pink rosebuds. It
might seem a little out of place to one who
didn't see it, but the effect was really charming.
Sedalia didn't know that Mr. Stewart had
given Gale her dress, so, just to be nasty,
she said, as soon as she saw Gale, "Dear me,
when are you going to dress, Gale? You will
hardly have time to get out of that horse-blanket you are wearing and get into something
decent." You see, she thought it was
one of my dresses fixed over for Gale. Presently
Sedalia asked me if I was invited to the
"function." She had some kind of rash on
her face and Zebulon Pike noticed the rash
and heard the word "function," so he thought
that was the name of some disease and asked
Mr. Stewart if the "function" was "catching."
Mr. Stewart had heart Sedalia, but
knew "Zebbie" had not heard all that was
said and how he got the idea he had, so he
answered, "Yes, if ye once get the fever."
So Zebulon Pike privately warned every one
against getting the "function" from Sedalia.
There are plenty of people here who don't
know exactly what a function is, myself
among them. So people edged away from
Sedalia, and some asked her if she had seen
the doctor and what he thought of her case.
Poor girl, I'm afraid she didn't have a very
enjoyable time.
At last the "jestice" of the peace came,
and I hope they live happy ever afterward.
That night a dance was given to celebrate
the event and we began to have dinner
immediately after the wedding so as to get
through in time to start, for dances are never
given in the home here, but in "the hall."
Every settlement has one and the invitations
are merely written announcements posted
everywhere. We have what Sedalia calls
"homogenous" crowds. I wouldn't attempt
to say what she means, but as everybody
goes no doubt she is right.
Our dinner was a success, but that is not
to be wondered at. Every woman for miles
around contributed. Of course we had to
borrow dishes, but we couldn't think of
seating every one; so we set one table for
twenty-four and had three other long tables,
on one of which we placed all the meats,
pickles, and sauces, on another the vegetables,
soup, and coffee, and on the third
the pie, cakes, ice-cream, and other desserts.
We had two big, long shelves, one above the
other, on which were the dishes. The people
helped themselves to dishes and neighbors
took turns at serving from the tables, so
people got what they wanted and hunted
themselves a place to sit while they ate. Two
of the cowboys from this ranch waited upon
the table at which were the wedding party
and some of their friends. Boys from other
ranches helped serve and carried coffee, cake,
and ice-cream. The tablecloths were tolerably
good linen and we had ironed them wet
so they looked nice. We had white lace-paper on the shelves and we used drawn-work paper napkins. As I said, we borrowed
dishes, or, that is, every woman who called
herself our neighbor brought whatever she
thought we would need. So after every one
had eaten I suggested that they sort out their
dishes and wash them, and in that way I was
saved all that work. We had everything done
and were off to the dance by five o'clock.
We went in sleds and sleighs, the snow was
so deep, but it was all so jolly. Zebbie, Mr.
Stewart, Jerrine, and I went in the bobsled.
We jogged along at a comfortable pace lest
the "beasties" should suffer, and every now
and then a merry party would fly past us
scattering snow in our faces and yelling like
Comanches. We had a lovely moon then
and the snow was so beautiful! We were
driving northward, and to the south and
back of us were the great somber, pine-clad
Uintah Mountains, while ahead and on every
side were the bare buttes, looking like old
men of the mountains,—so old they had
lost all their hair, beard, and teeth.