d his
clothes, bore his children, and took care of his household. His children
were never "little cherubs,"--"angels sent from heaven"--but generally
"tow-headed" and very earthly responsibilities. He looked forward
anxiously, to the day when the boys should be able to assist him in the
field, or fight the Indian, and the girls to help their mother make and
mend. When one of the latter took it into her head to be married--as
they usually did quite early in life; for beaux were plenty and belles
were "scarce"--he only made one condition, that the man of her choice
should be brave and healthy. He never made a "parade" about
anything--marriage, least of all. He usually gave the bride--not the
"blushing" bride--a bed, a lean horse, and some good advice: and, having
thus discharged his duty in the premises, returned to his work, and the
business was done.

The marriage ceremony, in those days, was a very unceremonious affair.
The parade and drill which now attend it, would then have been as
ridiculous as a Chinese dance; and the finery and ornament, at present
understood to be indispensable on such occasions, then bore no sway in
fashion. Bridal wreaths and dresses were not known; and white kid gloves
and satin slippers never heard of. Orange blossoms--natural and
artificial--were as pretty then as now; but the people were more
occupied with substance, than with emblem.

The ancients decked _their_ victims for the sacrifice with gaudy colors,
flags, and streamers; the moderns do the same, and the offerings are
sometimes made to quite as barbarous deities.

But the bride of the pioneer was clothed in linsey-wolsey, with hose of
woollen yarn; and moccasins of deer-skin--or as an extra piece of
finery, high-quartered shoes of calf-skin--preceded satin slippers. The
bridegroom came in copperas-colored jeans--domestic manufacture--as a
holiday suit; or, perhaps, a hunting-shirt of buckskin, all fringed
around the skirt and cape, and a "coon-skin" cap, with moccasins.
Instead of a dainty walking-stick, with an opera-dancer's leg, in ivory,
for head, he always brought his rifle, with a solid maple stock; and
never, during the whole ceremony, did he divest himself of powder-horn
and bullet-pouch.

Protestant ministers of the gospel were few in those days; and the words
of form were usually spoken by a Jesuit missionary. Or, if the Pioneer
had objections to Catholicism--as many had--his place was supplied by
some justice of th