THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 117 



accustomed to say, &quot;Taint every young man that can 

 marry a spectable widder, with a farm of 50 acres, well 

 watered and timbered. I allers knew Kier would come to 

 suthing, and now ye see.&quot; 



A short horse is soon curried, and this wedding being 

 the briefest we ever attended, is soon despatched. It ap 

 peared to excite about as much attention in the neighbor 

 hood as a horse trade, and the parties themselves manifest 

 ly looked upon it as an every-day business. We shall 

 leave to your imagination, to picture Kier, with the down 

 of youth upon bis chin, leading the widow with her bloom 

 ing charms to the altar, clasping of ungloved hands after 

 a ludicrous fumbling for the dexter digits, the few words 

 of the minister that made the twain one, the snickering of 

 the young ones, to whom the sight of a marriage cere 

 mony was a novelty, the awful pause that followed the 

 prayer, and the final dispersion of the company. The 

 most impressive part of the proceedings was the distribu 

 tion of molasses gingerbread, which answered for the 

 bridal loaf, and the manifest appetite of the groom for that 

 admirable confection. The widow Fagins had learned the 

 special weakness of her betrothed, and provided for the 

 occasion. In this instance, a wedding is about as nearly 

 stripped of its poetry as we ever remember to have seen it. 

 Connecticut is a great country, containing a good many 

 types of people. The Whiteoakers are a nation by them 

 selves. I had to tell Esq. Bunker that my hankering to 

 see a Simon Pure country wedding was cured up. The 

 minister s fee was seventy-five cents, all in quarters. 



YOUK REPORTER. 



REMARKS. We suspect Squire Bunker must have in 

 fluenced our reporter somewhat, for he, (our reporter,) 

 generally looks upon the bright side of every occurrence. 

 A &quot; Simon Pure country wedding &quot; always has its pleasant 

 features though in this case it is but just to say, in ex- 



