"Annie always said she was goin' to have such a weddin' as the county
never had seen, and she kept her word. Old Man Bob had the house fixed
up inside and out. They sent up to Louisville for the cakes and
things, and the weddin' cake was three feet high. There was a solid
gold ring in it, and the bridesmaids cut for it; and every gyirl there
had a slice o' the bride's cake to carry home to dream on that night.
Annie's weddin' dress was white satin so heavy it stood alone, so they
said. And Old Man Bob had the whole neighborhood laughin', tellin' how
many heifers and steers it took to pay for the lace around the neck of
it.
"Annie and Dick was married in October about the time the leaves fell,
and Milly's boy was born the last o' November. Lord! Lord! what a
world this is! Old Man Bob wouldn't hear to Annie's leavin' him, so
they stayed right on in the old home place. In them days folks didn't
go a-lopin' all over creation as soon as they got married; they
settled down to housekeepin' like sensible folks ought to do. Old Lady
Elrod was as foolish over Dick as Old Man Bob was over Annie, and it
was laid down beforehand that they was to spend half the time at Old
Man Bob's and half the time at the Squire's, 'bout the worst thing
they could 'a' done. The further a young couple can git from the old
folks on both sides the better for everybody concerned. And besides,
Annie wasn't the kind of a gyirl to git along with Dick's mother. A
gyirl with the kind o' raisin' Annie'd had wasn't any fit
daughter-in-law for a particular, high-steppin' woman like Old Lady
Elrod.
"There was some people that expected a heap o' Dick after he married,
but I never did. If a man can't be faithful to a woman before he
marries her, he ain't likely to be faithful after he marries her. And
shore enough the shine wasn't off o' Annie's weddin' clothes before
Dick was back to his old ways, drinkin' and carryin' on with the women
same as ever, and the first thing we knew, him and Annie had a big
quarrel, and Old Man Bob had ordered him off the place. However, they
made it up and went over to the old Squire's to live, and things went
on well enough till Annie's baby was born. Dick had set his heart on
havin' a boy, but it turned out a girl, and as soon as they told him,
he never even asked how Annie was, but jest went out to the stable and
saddled his horse and galloped off, and nobody seen him for two days.
He needn't 'a' took on so, for the pore little thing didn't live but a
week. Annie had convulsions over Dick's leavin' her that way, and the
doctor said that was what killed the child. Annie never was the same
after this. She grieved for her child and lost her good looks, and
when she lost them, she lost Dick. It wasn't long before Dick was
livin' with his father, and she with hers. At last he went out West;
and in less than three years Annie died; and a good thing she did, for
a more soured, disappointed woman couldn't 'a' been found anywhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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