marriage in
Westminster, Vt., in which the Widow Lovejoy, while nude and hidden in a
chimney recess behind a curtain, wedded Asa Averill. Smock-marriages on
the public highway are recorded in York, Me., in 1774, as shown in the
History of Wells and Kennebunkport. It is said that in one case the
pitying minister threw his coat over the shivering bride, Widow Mary
Bradley, who in February, clad only in a shift, met the bridegroom half
way from her home to his.

The traveller Kalm, writing in 1748, says that one Pennsylvania
bridegroom saved appearances by meeting the scantily-clad widow-bride
half way from her house to his, and announcing formally, in the presence
of witnesses, that the wedding clothes which he then put on her were
only lent to her for the occasion. This is curiously suggestive of the
marriage investiture of Eastern Hindostan.

In Westerly, R. I., in 1724, other smock-marriages were recorded, and in
Lincoln County, Me., in 1767, between John Gatchell and Sarah Cloutman,
showing that the belief in this vulgar error was wide-spread. The most
curious variation of this custom is told in the "Life of Gustavus
Vassa," wherein that traveller records that a smock-marriage took place
in New York in 1784 on a gallows. A malefactor condemned to death, and
about to undergo his execution, was reprieved and liberated through his
marriage to a woman clad only in a shift.

In spite of the hardness and narrowness of their daily life, and the
cold calculation, the lack of sentiment displayed in wooing, I think
Puritan husbands and wives were happy in their marriages, though their
love was shy, almost sombre, and "flowered out of sight like the fern."
A few love-letters still remain to prove their affection: letters of
sweethearts and letters of married lovers, such as Governor Winthrop
and his wife Margaret; letters like the words of another Margaret--a
queen--to her "alderliefest;" letters so simple and tender that truth
and love shine round them like a halo:

"MY OWN DEAR HUSBAND: How dearly welcome thy kind letter was to me,
I am not able to express. The sweetness of it did much refresh me.
What can be more pleasing to a wife than to hear of the welfare of
her best beloved and how he is pleased with her poor endeavors! I
blush to hear myself commended, knowing my own wants. But it is
your love that conceives the best and makes all things seem better
than they are. I wish that I may