Town and Country, page 149 by John S. Adams
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s fixed, I tell you,--father led the way over Higginses' rough pasture. I should have gone round, in the road, where it was decent walking, if I had been anybody; but I was n't any one; I was a--well, you know what. I got one of my boots full of water, and father fell down and bruised his nose; but I took off my boot and poured the water out, and he put a piece of court-plaster on his nose,--a great black piece,--and we did n't look as bad as we might, so he said; and so I said, 'of course.'
"Susan was at home, seated in the middle of a great room, as if on exhibition; and perhaps she was,--I thought so. I had seen Susan before, and always disliked her. There was nothing in her personal appearance, or her mind, that pleased me. I never met her without marking her future life as that of an old maid. But she was to be my wife; father said so, mother shouted amen; and I was to love her, and so I said I did, 'of course.'
"It seemed to me that she knew all about what I came for; for she put out her little slim hand, that never made a loaf of bread nor held a needle, but had only fingered the leaves of Greek and Latin Lexicons, and volumes of Zoology and Ornithology, and thrummed piano-keys,--all very well in their place (don't think I depreciate them), but very bad when their place is so large that there's no room for anything else,--very bad, sir.
"As she took my hand she attempted to kiss me; but, being rather shy, I dodged when I saw her lips a-coming, and they went plump on to father's nose, and exploded on his piece of court-plaster.
"It was all fixed that night, and I was to be married one week from the ensuing Sunday.
"We went home. I received a smile from those who were so considerate as to hunt me up a wife.
"If you'd seen the Greentown Gazette a fortnight after, and had looked at the list of marriages, you might have read, 'Married: In this town, by Rev. Ebenezer Pilgrade, Mr. Jacob Jenkins, Jr. (recently from college), to Susan Jane Maria Parsons, estimable daughter