“But she wouldn’t hear a word of it, said if I could stand it, she could; wasn’t a bit afraid, that it was the best time of the year to go because the roads were better and the streams we would have to ford were low; and that I ought to be on my land early in the spring to sow or plant the ground I had ploughed. So we got married, and then the old folks set in worse than ever for us not to go till spring, and even the neighbors took it up, but I had one on my side and he was worth all the rest.”
“Father,” said William, sinking his voice to a whisper.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Whitman, “his opinion was worth more than all the other’s opinions. A few nights before we set out, and when all the young girls, my schoolmates, were pitying me and doing all they could to make me feel worse, the good old man took me into the other room and said: ‘Mary, never you mind those young people, don’t let anything they say jar you a particle. Listen to the old man who has been over every inch of the road you and William are starting on. If you live to my age you’ll look back and say that the days you spent in the brush camp were the happiest days, for they were full of hope; but when you have lived to my age you will have outlived all your hopes but the hope of eternal life, and that is the best of all, because the possession will be more than the expectation while everything else falls short. You have got a good husband, his heart is tender as a child’s, but his mind is as firm as a piece of the nether millstone. He’s a cheery lad, he’ll look on the bright side, keep your heart up and his own too. You are married now and have taken the first step, don’t look back, it didn’t work well with Lot’s wife. I never knew it to work well with anybody, look ahead; a man isn’t half a man and a woman isn’t half a woman who has never had any load to carry. I take it you’ll work in an even yoke; you are both smart, and no doubt feel that you are equal to anything, and perhaps look down on people who have not your strength and resolution, but it is better to look up, and the first night you get into the camp I want William to take the Bible and read and pray, and I want you to ask him to.’ I didn’t have to ask him.”