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bor's and sitting together in a single afternoon spun the out-fit of the coming 

 bride, to the music of the revolving wheels, and equally swift moving tongues. 

 <; Huskings" where good round romping games followed the amply filled sup- 

 per table, after which the young couples wended their way homeward and whis- 

 pered those little but important twitterings which generally twist up the single 

 threads of life into that double cord which binds us safely and comfortably to- 

 gether on our walk through our earthly pilgrimage. Land was free compari- 

 tively among our forefathers, labor not despised and when employed with good 

 will sure to earn a subsistence, as it is now, and consequently young men and 

 maidens united early in wedlock and took the consequences, — and such wooing 

 as the following never took place among them, though not uncommon with their 

 degenerate descendants : "1 hope you will be able to support me, " said a young 

 lady while walking out one evening with her intended during a somewhat slip- 

 pery state of the sidewalks. "Why, yes," said the somewhat hesitating swain, 

 "with a little assistance from your father." On the contrary, if the men did 

 not make their wishes known before too long dallying, they w r ere prompted 

 somewhat in this wise as related of a young couple who had been staying with 

 mutual relations and evidently got fond of each other and when meeting on the 

 stairs the lady said, "Did you say anything, John? " "No-nothing," stutter- 

 ed out the swain. "Well, it's high time you did," replied the interested fair 

 one. You all recollect the story of the courtship of Capt. Miles Standish, the 

 man of very little stature, yet of a peppery temper, who hesitated not to attack 

 all the armies of the Plymouth colony with his army of eight and occasionally 

 fourteen men. Capt. Miles, as short and peppery men are apt to, fell dreadfully 

 in love with Priscilla Mullins, but unwisely employed his friend, John Alden, 

 who was a better looking fellow, to court ber lor him, and when John, after 

 the usual preliminaries, sneaking about a little in the daylight and wastiug tal 

 low in the evening, popped the question on behalf of his friend; the Puritan 

 beauty met his proposal with the characteristic question, "Prithee, John, why 

 do you not speak for yourself \ " John couldn't resist such an appeal and had 

 to report to his principal the facts, whereupon Capt. Miles was dreadfully put 

 out, but came round about the time of the wedding, after which Alden took 

 his wife home riding on a bull. Longfellow has immortalized the incident of 

 the courtship in verse, but he has made a variance from historical truth by put- 

 ting the hero upon a steer instead of a bull. In fact marriage among our fore- 

 fathers wan at a premium — they looked upon bachelors as an expensive luxury, 

 unproductive consumers, and not only taxed them highly but kept them under 

 supervision, forbidding thein to live by themselves or in any family without the 

 consent of the selectmen. Children were an important consideration — very 

 handy to have in the country, and large families greeted as a blessing. Nearly 

 every household could equal thar of Jacob's in sons and excel it in daughters, 

 and Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulon, Issaehar, Dan, Gad, Asher, 

 Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin, were not unlikely to have fair counterparts in 

 a Rachel, Adasa, Baruch, Beersheba, Jerusha, Deborah, Hagar, Hannah, Lean, 

 Miriam, Mehitabel and Priscilla, and with such help there was no need of foi- 

 eign labor and with such companions no hankering after cities and other crowd* 



