When a young man is unable to purchase the girl he loves best, or if her
parents are unwilling she should marry him, if he have gained the heart
of the maiden he is safe. They appoint a time and place to meet; take
whatever will be necessary for their journey; that is, the man takes his
gun and powder and shot, and the girl her knife and wooden bowl to eat
and drink out of; and these she intends to hide in her blanket.
Sometimes they merely go to the next village to return the next day. But
if they fancy a bridal tour, away they go several hundred miles with
the grass for their pillow, the canopy of heaven for their curtains, and
the bright stars to light and watch over them. When they return home,
the bride goes at once to chopping wood, and the groom to smoking,
without the least form or parade.
Sometimes a young girl dare not run away; for she has a miserly father
or mother who may not like her lover because he had not enough to give
them for her; and she knows they will persecute her and perhaps shoot
her husband. But this does not happen often. Just as, once in a hundred
years in a Christian land, if a girl will run away with a young man, her
parents run after her, and in spite of religion and common sense bring
her back, have her divorced, and then in either case the parties must,
as a matter of course, be very miserable.
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