328 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



for his wedding. I looked surprised, as I knew 

 West had a cabin full of children, from the veri- 

 est " pick'ny " to a well-grown lad of fifteen, and his 

 wife seemed a particularly excellent woman. Was 

 West about to abandon his family ? Had a divorce 

 been obtained? These speculations came to my 

 mind. However, I gave the required permission, 

 and then made cautious inquiry learned that 

 West, who had acquired some little property, felt 

 that he could at last afford a wedding, and that he 

 proposed to celebrate with proper ceremony his 

 marriage to the woman who had been so long his 

 faithful companion, the mother of his children. 

 After the church service, the neighbors from far 

 and near assembled at West's house. The merry- 

 making continued for several days, and the good 

 fortune of the happy pair was a source of rejoic- 

 ing for the whole country-side. This practice 

 very generally obtains. A man has no wedding 

 till he can afford it. 



At " Boston " we were in the black belt. Two 

 bachelors were our only white neighbors. Our 

 quiet was broken in upon most pleasantly by the 

 visits of the officers of the historic Kearsarge 

 and the Enterprise, while the ships were in 

 harbor at Port Antonio. Professor Rothrock also 

 stopped over with us on one of his botanical ex- 

 peditions ; he was that winter studying especially 

 the forests of Jamaica. 



