The Wedding Pillow-case 



By way of opening the conversation with an interesting 

 topic, I asked her when she was to be married ? She, 

 instead of, as I supposed she would, entirely denying all 

 thought or intention of such an undertaking, simply 

 answered, " In August." 



" And so you are embroidering lilies and roses on the 

 wedding-sheets ? " I continued. 



" On the pillow," said she. 



" How long was the courtship ?" said I. 



" Two years," said she. 



" And how old is the novio ? " (sweetheart), said I. 



" Twenty-two," said she. 



" And you ? " said I. 



" Nineteen," said she. 



*' It sounds like a discreet preparation for happiness, and 

 I hope your pillow may be strewed with real roses and 

 lilies," said I. 



" I thank your worship," said she ; and so we mounted 

 and rode away. 



After crossi'ng a league or two more of the plain, we were 

 within about the same distance of a range of hills, when the 

 road disappeared in the midst of a wheat-field. Here it 

 was very heavy riding, and, to make it worse, rain came on. 

 Good fortune at last brought us to another road, by which 

 we got to El-Christo de la Valle, whose minaret-like towers 

 and steeples rise in a narrow cleft through the range of hills. 



Riding into the town with my long brown Scotch plaid 

 hanging nearly to the ground on either side, with the front 

 corners knotted over the Moor's mane, so that I dare say 

 he looked very like a hobby-horse at Astley's, the children 

 of the place, who probably had never seen so strange a 

 figure, shouted and laughed with such enthusiasm, that we 

 were glad to take shelter in a poiada. 



262 



