ENTER MARGERY
At four o'clock on the afternoon of June 6th Mr. and Mrs. Hector Archibald
arrived at a family hotel in the capital of their state. Where they should
go from there had not been decided upon. Nothing in regard to their
wedding-journey had been decided upon except that they were to return to
their home on the 6th of July of that year, and not before. It would have
been impossible, with their minds filled with bridal arrangements, for
them to make plans for their journey. But at this first stopping-place,
where they were free from all responsibility and interruptions, they
could, at their leisure, decide where they should go, how they should go,
and what they should do when they got there.
After the unrest and turmoil of their own home during the past few weeks,
the quiet and repose of this city hotel were delightful. That evening they
went to the theatre, and after the performance they had a little supper at
a restaurant.
"People may not think we are a newly married pair," said Mr. Archibald, as
he poured out a glass of wine for his wife, "but it is not impossible that
they may see we know how to enjoy ourselves quite as much as if we were."
The next morning Mr. Archibald procured a number of railroad maps,
time-tables, circulars of steamboat excursions, advertisements of mountain
retreats and sea-side resorts, and he and his wife sat down to study
these, and to decide upon a destination and a route. After an hour or two
of indeterminate examination Mr. Archibald declared himself a little
tired, and proposed that they should take a recess from their labors and
go and call upon their old friends, the Stanley Dearborns.
"People on wedding-tours do not make calls," said Mrs. Archibald.
"That may be true," said her husband, "in ordinary cases, and although I
do not care to announce to everybody the peculiarities of the expedition
which we have undertaken, I do not mind in the least telling the Stanley
Dearborns all about it. Stanley himself would not appreciate it; he would
consider it absurd; but then he is not at home at this time of day, and
Mrs. Dearborn is just the woman to enjoy a reform movement of this sort.
Besides, she is full of ideas about everything, and she may propose some
good place for us to go to."
Mrs. Dearborn was at home, and very glad to see the Archibalds. She was a
woman whose soul was in touch with the higher education of women--with
female suffrage, the emancipation of the enslaved mind wherever it might
be found, and with progress generally. She was a member of many societies,
belonged to committees without end, wrote reports and minutes by day and
by night, and was one of that ever-increasing class of good people who
continually walk forward in order that their weight may help the world to
turn over.
In spite of her principles and the advanced position of her thought, Mrs.
Dearborn actually leaned back in her chair and laughed heartily when she
learned what sort of a journey the Archibalds were taking. In this
merriment Mr. Archibald joined with great glee.
"Ever since I left home," he said, "I have wanted to have a chance for a
good laugh at this trip we are taking. It is the most delightful joke I
have ever known."
Mrs. Archibald could not help smiling, but her brow was clouded. "If this
expedition is merely a joke," she said, "I do not think we should have
undertaken it; but if it is an earnest assertion of our belief that there
should be a change in the customs of society, then I think we should take
it seriously, and I see nothing to laugh at."
"My dear Harriet," said Mrs. Dearborn, "we can be good and glad at the
same time; and that is what I am, I am sure. What you are doing is the
initiation of one of the most worthy reforms of the day, and if it should
have an effect in breaking up that wretched custom of the bridal tramp,
which is considered so necessary in this country, society should rise up
and call you blessed. But it is funny, for all that. I am sure that the
first woman who dared to go without crinoline was very funny, and when I
heard of a hospital for cats I could not help laughing; but I believed in
it, and worked for it. And now where are you going?"
"That is what we want to talk to you about," said Mr. Archibald; and for
half an hour they talked about it.
At the end of that time it was decided that the mountains were better than
the sea or than a quiet lowland nook; and Mrs. Dearborn strongly
recommended Sadler's, where she and her husband had spent a part of a
summer a few years before.
"We camped out," said she, "and had a fine time. You can camp out at
Sadler's more easily and satisfactorily than anywhere else in the world."
Camping suited Mr. Archibald admirably, and, to his surprise, his wife
said she might like it very well.
"If people are going to laugh at us," she said, "when they find out we are
on a wedding-journey--and they will be sure to find it out in some way or
other--I think the fewer people we mingle with the better. I do not think
I shall like camping altogether, but I know it is healthful, and I suppose
I ought to get used to it. It would be dreadfully lonely for just Mr.
Archibald and me, but I suppose we can take some one with us to guide and
cook."
"My dear Harriet," said Mrs. Dearborn, "if you are at Sadler's, you can go
into any sort of camp you please. I will tell you all about Sadler's.
Sadler is a man of progress. His hotel or inn is on the very edge of the
forest country, and away from all the centres of resort. He calls his
place the terminal link of public travel in that direction. When you leave
him you travel privately in any way you like. He has established what he
has named a bureau of camping, and he furnishes his patrons with any sort
of a camp they may desire. If the party is few in number and of a timid
disposition, they can have a camp within shouting distance of his house.
If they are brave and adventurous, he will send them out into the depths
of the forest. If they like water, he locates them by the shores of a
lake. If climbing is their passion, he puts them at the foot of a
mountain. Those who want to hunt can do so, and those who dislike
fire-arms are placed in a camp where the popping of guns is never heard.
He provides tents, guides, provisions, and even dangers and sensations."
"Safety is what I want," interrupted Mrs. Archibald.
"And that he furnishes," said the other, "for those who desire it."
"Sadler is the man for me!" cried Mr. Archibald. "We will go to him, look
over his list of camps, and select one to suit us."
"By-the-way," said Mrs. Dearborn, "a thought has struck me. How would you
like to take Margery with you?"
"Margery!" exclaimed Mr. Archibald. "That delightful little girl whom I
taught to ride a tricycle when you were visiting us? I would like it ever
so much."
It struck Mrs. Archibald that people on bridal trips did not generally
take children or young girls with them, but it also struck her that if
they were going into camp it might be pleasant and in many ways
advantageous to have some one of her own sex with her; but she had no time
to formulate these advantages in her mind before Mrs. Dearborn explained
in full.
"Since Mr. Dearborn and I came home from Sadler's," she said, "Margery has
been perfectly wild to go there, and as soon as the leaves began to bud in
the parks she began to talk about it. We saw no possible chance of her
going there, for her father is too busy to leave home for any length of
time this season, and I cannot go to the mountains this year, for I must
visit my sister, who is not well, and there are three summer conventions
that I am obliged to attend. But if you could take her with you, I do not
believe she would trouble you in the least, and you would give her great
pleasure. Moreover, to speak practically, which I think we always ought to
do, it would not be a bad thing on the score of economy, for things are
always proportionately cheaper for three people in a camp than for two."
A great many advantages of female companionship now began to creep into
Mrs. Archibald's mind: if her husband should take it into his head to go
out and hunt at night by the light of a torch; if there should be
thunder-storms, and he away with the guide; if he should want to go off
and talk to Indians or trappers, and he always did want to go off and talk
to people of every class--it would be very pleasant to have even Margery
Dearborn with her. So she consented with great good-will to her friend's
proposition, and Mrs. Dearborn was much pleased and thankful.
"Margery is a true creature of impulse," she said; "that is really her
predominating characteristic, and she will want to bound to the ceiling
when she hears she is to go to Sadler's. She is not at home now, but she
will be in very soon. You must take luncheon with us."
About a quarter of an hour after that Margery Dearborn came home. She was
very glad indeed to see the Archibalds, whom she remembered as the kindest
of people; and when she heard they were going to take her to Sadler's, she
gave a scream of delight and threw herself upon Mrs. Archibald's neck.
"You are an angel," she cried, "an angel of blessedness, my dear Aunt
Harriet! Don't you remember, I used to call you that? Won't you let me
call you so still?" And without waiting for an answer, she rushed to Mr.
Archibald, with outstretched hands. "Dear Uncle Archibald, you are just as
good as ever, I see. You know, I wouldn't call you Uncle Hector, because
hectoring meant scolding, which never had anything to do with you.
Sadler's! Oh, when do we start?"
"To-morrow is Saturday," replied Mr. Archibald; "we must get together some
things we will need for camp-life, and we can start on Monday."
When the visitors were left to themselves for a few moments, Mr. Archibald
said to his wife, "Harriet, I am astounded. This girl, who used to ride
bareback and jump over fences, is a young lady now, and a handsome one,
too. She is quite a different person from the girl I agreed to take with
us."
"Mr. Archibald," said his wife, "you never can remember that in this world
people of all ages grow older. She was fourteen when she was visiting us,
and that was four years ago, so of course she is a young lady."
"No," he answered, "I don't feel that I am growing any older, and I don't
see that you are, and so I totally forget that proclivity in other people.
But what do you think now? Can we take this young woman with us to camp?
Will she not be a dreadful drag?"
"My dear," said Mrs. Archibald, "I much prefer the young lady to the girl.
I don't want to be the only woman in camp, and the nearer the other woman
is to my age the better."
"All right," said Mr. Archibald; "if you are satisfied, I am; and, if she
will agree to it, we will add our ages for the time being, and divide by
three, and then we will all stand on a level."