Page 59 - MailOrderBrideFlipBook

Jim smiled to himself as he thought about it. At thirty-two, he was quite set in his ways, and, besides, she was twelve years younger. He wasn’t sure he wanted to get married. She had told him that if he wasn’t going to marry her, she was going to save up to go home. By that time, he couldn’t imagine life without her, and he immediately proposed. He remembered well how much the men teased him. “You know,” a man named Clarkston said, “getting married will make you soft.” “Well, that might be good,” Jim could remember saying. “Then some of you might almost be competition when I need to whip you.” Jim had worked hard to get his home ready for his new bride. He added onto the kitchen and put in a new wood cookstove - one of those fancy ones that had a reservoir for heating water built right into it. He patched the roof and increased the size of the living room. He worked on it every night and on weekends, and, by the time they were to be married, he felt pretty good about it. Jim could remember the wedding vividly. There really wasn’t much in the way of a preacher. Sometimes a traveling one might come through in the summer. But, it was springtime and no preacher was available. For that reason, they had John Harris perform the marriage. He was Whitman’s father, and the mayor at the time. Most of the men from the lumber camp were there, dressed as well as they could in the clothes they had. They gathered in the old town hall, which was fairly modern then. Most of the town had turned out for the wedding. It was a big event. He could remember how 56