The Wedding Guest

LOVE vs.  HEALTH.

ABOUT a mile from one of the Berkshire villages, and separated from it by the Housatonic, is one of the loveliest sites in all our old county.  It is on an exhausted farm of rocky, irregular, grazing ground, with a meadow of rich alluvial soil.  The river, which so nearly surrounds it as to make it a peninsula “in little,” doubles around a narrow tongue of land, called the “ox-bow”—­a bit of the meadow so smooth, so fantastic in its shape, so secluded, so adorned by its fringe of willows, clematises, grape-vines, and all our water-loving shrubs, that it suggests to every one, who ever read a fairy tale, a scene for the revels of elves and fairies.  Yet no Oberon—­no Titania dwelt there; but long ago, where there are now some ruinous remains of old houses, and an uncouth new one, stood the first frame house of the lower valley of the Housatonic.  It was inhabited by the last Indian who maintained the dignity of a Chief, and from him passed to the first missionary to the tribe.  There Kirkland, the late honoured President of Harvard College, was born, and there his genial and generous nature received its first and ineffaceable impressions.  Tenants, unknown to fame, succeeded the missionary.

The Indian dwelling fell to decay; and the property has now passed into the bands of a poet, who, rumour says, purposes transforming it to a villa, and whose occupancy will give to it a new consecration.

Just before its final high destiny was revealed, there dwelt there a rustic pair, who found out, rather late in life, that Heaven had decreed they should wear together the conjugal yoke.  That Heaven had decreed it no one could doubt who saw how well it fitted, and how well they drew together.

They had one child—­a late blossom, and cherished as such.  Little Mary Marvel would have been spoiled, but there was nothing to spoil her.  Love is the element of life, and in an atmosphere of love she lived.  Her parents were people of good sense—­upright and simple in their habits, with no theories, nor prejudices, ambitions, or corruptions, to turn the child from the inspirations of Heaven, with which she began her innocent life.

When little Mary Marvel came to be seven years old, it was a matter of serious consideration how she was to be got to the district school on “the plain” (the common designation of the broad village street), full a mile from the Marvels secluded residence.  Mrs. Marvel was far better qualified than the teachers of the said school, to direct the literary training of her child.  She was a strong-minded woman, and a reader of all the books she could compass.  But she had the in-door farm-work to do—­cheese to make, butter to churn, &c. and after little Mary had learned to read and spell, she must be sent to school for the more elaborate processes of learning—­arithmetic, geography, &c.

“Now, Julius Hasen,” said Marvel to his only neighbour’s son, “don’t you want to call, as you go by, days, with your little sister, and take our Mary to school?  I guess she won’t be a trouble.  She could go alone; but, somehow, mother and I shall feel easier—­as the river is to pass, &c.—­if you are willing.”

A kind boy was Julius; and, without hesitation, he promised to take Marvel’s treasure under his convoy.  And, for the two years following, whenever the district school was in operation, Julius might be seen conducting the two little girls down the hill that leads to the bridge.  At the bridge they loitered.  Its charm was felt, but indefinable.  It was a spell upon their senses; they would look up and down the sparkling stream till it winded far away from sight, and at their own pretty faces, that smiled again to them, and at Julius skittering the stones along the water, (a magical rustic art!) That old bridge was a point of sight for pictures, lovelier than Claude painted.  For many a year, the old lingered there, to recall the poetry of their earlier days; lovers, to watch the rising and setting of many a star, and children to play out their “noon-times” and twilights.  Heaven forgive those who replaced it with a, dark, dirty, covered, barn-like thing of bad odour in every sense!  The worst kind of barbarians, those, who make war—­not upon life, but upon the life of life—­its innocent pleasures!

But, we loiter with the children, when we should go on with them through the narrow lane intersecting broad, rich meadows, and shaded by pollard willows, which form living and growing posts for the prettiest of our northern fences, and round the turn by the old Indian burying-ground.  Now, having come to “the plain,” they pass the solemn precincts of the village Church, and that burying-ground where, since the Indian left his dead with us, generations of their successors are already lain.  And now they enter the wide village street, wide as it is, shaded and embowered by dense maples and wide-stretching elms; and enlivened with neatly-trimmed court-yards and flower-gardens, It was a pleasant walk, and its sweet influences bound these young people’s hearts together.  We are not telling a love-story, and do not mean to intimate that this was the beginning of one—­though we have heard of the seeds nature implants germinating at as early a period as this, and we remember a boy of six years old who, on being reproved by his mother for having kept his book open at one place, and his eye fixed on it for half an hour, replied, with touching frankness—­

“Mother, I can see nothing there but Caroline Mitchell!  Caroline Mitchell!”

Little Mary Marvel had no other sentiment for Julius than his sister had.  She thought him the kindest and the best; and much as she reverenced the village pedagogues, she thought Julius’s learning profounder than theirs, for he told them stories from the Arabian Nights—­taught them the traditions of Monument Mountain—­made them learn by heart the poetry that has immortalized them, and performed other miracles of learning and teaching, to which the schoolmaster didn’t approach!

Children’s judgments are formed on singular premises, but they are usually just conclusions.  Julius was an extraordinary boy, and, fortunately, he was selected on that account, and not because he was sickly and could do nothing else (not uncommon grounds for this election), for a liberal education.  Strong of heart and strong in body, he succeeded in everything, and without being a charge to his father.  He went through college—­was graduated with honour—­studied law—­and, when Mary Marvel was about nineteen, he came home from his residence in one of our thriving Western cities, for a vacation in his full legal business.

His first visit was to the Marvels, where he was received with as much warmth as in his father’s home.  As he left the house, he said to his sister Anne, who was with him—­

“How shockingly poor Mary is looking!”

“Shockingly!  Why, I expected you would say she was so pretty!”

“Pretty!  My dear Anne, the roses on your cheek are worth all the beauty that is left in her pale face.  What have they done to her?  When you were children, she was at robust, round little thing—­and so strong and cheerful—­you could hear her voice half a mile, ringing like a bell; and now it’s ’Hark from the tomb a doleful sound!’ When I last saw her—­let me see—­four years ago—­she was—­not perhaps a Hebe—­but a wholesome-looking girl.”

“Julius!—­what an expression!”

“Well, my dear, it conveys my meaning, and, therefore, is a good expression.  What has been the matter?  Has she had a fever?  Is she diseased?”

“Julius!  No!  Is that the way the Western people talk about young ladies?—­Mary is in poor health—­rather delicate; but she does not look so different from the rest of our girls—­I, you know, am an exception.”

“Thank Heaven, you are, my dear Anne, and thank our dear, sensible mother, who understands the agents and means of health.”

“But Mary’s mother is a sensible woman too.”

“Not in her treatment of Mary, I am sure.  Tell me how she lives.  What has she been about since I was here?”

“Why, soon after you went away, you know, I wrote to you that she had gone to the—­School.  You know her parents are willing to do everything for her—­and Mary was very ambitious.  They are hard students at that school.  Mary told me she studied from eight to ten hours a day.  She always got sick before examination, and had to send home for lots of pills.  I remember Mrs. Marvel once sending her four boxes of Brandreth’s at a time.  But she took the first honours.  At the end of her first term, she came home, looking, as you say, as if she had had a fever.”

“And they sent her back?”

“Why, yes, certainly—­term after term—­for two years.  You know Mary was always persevering; and so was her mother.  And now they have their reward.  There is not a girl anywhere who surpasses Mary for scholarship.”

“Truly, they have their reward—­infatuated people!” murmured Hasen.  “Have they taken any measures to restore her health, Anne?”

“Oh, yes.  Mrs. Marvel does not permit her to do any hard work.  She does not even let her sweep her own room; they keep a domestic, you know; and, last winter, she had an air-tight stove in her room, and it was kept constantly warm, day and night.  The draft was opened early; and Mrs. Marvel let Mary remain in bed as long as she pleased; and, feeling weak, she seldom was inclined to rise before nine or ten.”

“Go on, Anne.  What other sanitary measures were pursued?”

“Just such as we all take, when we are ill.  She doctors, if she is more unwell than usual; and she rides out almost every pleasant day.  There is nothing they won’t do for her.  There is no kind of pie or cake, sweetmeat or custard, that Mrs. Marvel does not make to tempt her appetite.  If she wants to go to ‘the plain,’ Mr. Marvel harnesses, and drives over.  You know, father would think it ridiculous to do it for me.”

“Worse than ridiculous, Anne!—­What does the poor girl do?  How does she amuse herself?”

“I do believe, Julius, you are interested in Mary Marvel!”

“I am.  I was always curious as to the different modes of suicide people adopt.  Has she any occupation—­any pleasure?”

“Oh, yes; she reads for ever, and studies; she is studying German now.”

“Poor Mary!”

“What in the world makes you pity Mary, Julius?”

“Because, Anne, she hag been deprived of nature’s best gift—­defrauded of her inheritance:  a sound constitution from temperate, active parents.  One may have all the gifts, graces, charms, accomplishments, under Heaven, and, if they have not health, of what use or enjoyment are they?  If that little, frail body of Mary Marvel’s contained all that I have enumerated, it would be just the reverse of Pandora’s box—­having every good, but one curse that infected all.”

“Dear Julius, I cannot bear to hear you talk so of Mary.  I expected you would like her so much.  I—­I—­hoped—.  She is so pretty, so Lovely—­she is fit for Heaven.”

“She may be, Anne,—­I do not doubt it; but she is very unfit for earth.  What has her good, devoted, sensible, well-informed mother been about?  If Mary had been taught the laws of health, and obeyed them, it would have been worth infinitely more to her than all she has got at your famous boarding-school, Ignorance of these laws is culpable in the mothers—­disastrous, fatal to the daughters.  It is a disgrace to our people.  The young women now coming on, will be as nervous, as weak, as wretched, as their unhappy mothers—­languishing embodiments of diseases—­mementos of doctors and pill-boxes, dragging out life in air-tight rooms, religiously struggling to perform their duties, and dying before they have half finished the allotted term of life.  They have no life—­no true enjoyment of life!”

“What a tirade, Julius!  Any one would think you were a cross old bachelor!”

“On the contrary, my dear Anne, it is because I am a young bachelor and desire not to be a much older one, that I am so earnest on this subject.  I have been travelling now for two months in rail-cars and steamers, and I could fill a medical journal with cases of young women, married and single, whom I have met from town and country, with every ill that flesh is heir to.  I have been an involuntary auditor of their charming little confidences of ‘chronic headaches,’ nervous feelings,’ ‘weak-backs,’ ‘neuralgia,’ and Heaven knows what all!”

“Oh, Julius!  Julius!”

“It is true, Anne.  And their whole care is, gentle and simple, to avoid the air; never to walk when they can ride; never to use cold water when they can get warm; never to eat bread when they can get cake, and so on, and so on, through the chapter.  In the matter of eating and drinking, and such little garnitures as smoking and chewing, the men are worse.  Fortunately, their occupations save most of them from the invalidism of the women.  You think Mary Marvel beautiful?”

“No—­not beautiful, perhaps,—­but very, very pretty, and so loveable!”

“Well,” rejoined Julius, coldly, after some hesitation, “Mary is pretty; her eye is beautiful; her whole face intelligent, but so pale, so thin—­her lips so colourless—­her hands so transparent, that I cannot look at her with any pleasure.  I declare to you, Anne, when I see a woman with a lively eye, a clear, healthy skin, that shows the air of Heaven visits it daily—­it may be, roughly—­if it pleases, Heaven to roughen the day,—­an elastic, vigorous step, and a strong, cheerful voice, I am ready to fall down and do her homage!”

Julius Hasen was sincere and zealous in his theory, but he is not the first man whose theories Love has overthrown.  “Love laughs at locksmiths.” and mischievously mocks at the stoutest bars and bolts of resolution.

Hasen passed the summer in his native town.  He renewed his intimacy with his old neighbours.  He perceived in Mary graces and qualities that made him feel the heavenly and forget the earthly; and, in spite of his wise, well-considered resolution, in three months he had impressed on her “pale cheek” the kiss of betrothal, and slipt an the third finger of her “transparent hand,” the “engagement ring!”

But, we must do Julius Hasen justice.  When his laughing sister rallied him on his inconsistency, he said—­

“You are right, Anne; but I adhere to my text, though I must now uphold it as a beacon—­not as an example.  I must say with the Turk—­’It was written.’”

He was true to himself and true to his wife; and, at the risk of shocking our young lady readers, we must betray that, after the wedding-ring, Hasen’s first gift to Mary was—­“The Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health, and the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education; by Andrew Combe, M. D.”  This book (which should be studied by every Mother in the United States) he accompanied by a solemn adjuration, that she would study and apply it.  He did not stop here.  After his marriage, he bought two riding-horses—­mounted his bride on one and himself on the other, and thus performed the greater part of the journey to Indiana—­only taking a rail-car for convenience, or a steamer for repose!

And, arrived at his Western home, and with the hearty acquiescence of his wife, who only needed to know the right, to pursue it, she began a physical life in obedience to the laws laid down by the said oracle, Andrew Combe.

Last fall, six years since his marriage, he brought his wife and two children to visit his Eastern friends.  In reply to compliments on all hands, on his wife’s improved health and beauty, he laughingly proposed to build, on the site of the old Indian dwelling, a quadrangular Temple, dedicated to the Four Ministers to Health—­Air, Water, Exercise, and Regimen!