Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter — page 128: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

124 : ALICE WILDE. him. Ef he’d only a partaken of de weddin’-feas’, he couldn't hab been better prepared ’an he was. Hi! hi!” It was a picturesque-looking party which sailed away from Wilde’s mill one brilliant day in September. “One doesn’t see such a bridal-party every day, or take such a bridal tour,” remarked Virginia to the groomsman by her side. ‘It’s better than six fashionable weddings, with the usual routine. I used to have a contempt for the romantic— but Pm begining to like it.” Yes, even the aristocratic Virginia, the beautiful metropoli- tan, began to be infatuated with the romance of the forest. We may yet hear of. more remarkable changes than her change of opinion. We may yet see a villa, charming as those which grace our lordly Hudson, rising amid the elms and beeches on the banks of that fairer Western river—for love, beauty, taste, and money can accomplish wonders more surprising than making the wilderness blossom like a rose— and “‘ out West” Aladdin’s lamp is no myth. But, for the present, we will leave this picturesque party sailing down this broad, silver river in the purple and gold of an autumn day—leave it to its joyous light, and leave that one new-made grave to its silence and shadow. THE END. Comichdooksnco