The Land of Lure: A Story of the Columbia River BasinSmith, Elliott
General
The Land of Lure: A Story of the Columbia River Basin
Smith, Elliott
Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; Northwest, Pacific -- Fiction
At last the day came for the departure of the party for the city, and
all were ready and Ida and her mother had kissed each of the girls and
Joe goodbye, and Jack had faithfully promised Joe that they would have
an automobile when he returned, the party, consisting of Ida, her
mother, Miss Anderson, Jack and his father, were driven to the station
by Travis Gully, who saw them off on their trip and returned home to his
lonesome children, who had never been left by their mother before.
Upon the arrival of the wedding party in Spokane they were met at the
station by the thoughtful Dugan, who Jack had advised by telegram the
time of their departure and the number in the party, and then upon
seeing Dugan at the station, had evidenced as much surprise as the rest.
They immediately went to the hotel, where Dugan had engaged apartments
for them, and that night Ida and her mother attended the theater for the
first time in their lives. Miss Anderson, being escorted by Dugan, made
the party complete.
Two days later Jack and Ida were quietly married in the parlor of the
hotel where they had been stopping and Mr. Dugan and Miss Anderson were
their attendants, just as Jack had planned. A few hours afterward they
were on their way to Galveston under the care of Mr. Norton and Dugan,
who occupied the smoking compartment, while the young couple were left
alone to assume as much as was possible an air of indifference to the
actions of their fellow passengers, who had in some mysterious way
discovered the fact that a wedding had just occurred, and were enjoying
themselves at the young couple's expense.
Mrs. Gully and Miss Anderson returned to their homes the following day,
tired but happy and loaded down with trinkets, both useful and
ornamental, which Mr. Norton, Jack and Ida had entrusted to their care
for distribution among the family as a token of their best wishes.
Short messages and post cards mailed along the route were received from
Jack and Ida in almost every mail, but it was nearly two weeks before
the first real letter reached the home folks. They had been in Galveston
for several days, but father Norton had kept them on the go so
constantly they had not had time to write, and the letter, when it did
come, was filled with accounts of their many trips and delightful time
they were having. "Oh! mamma," wrote Ida. "Just think! I have been on
board the 'Magnolia,' the very yacht on account of which Jack left
home. There was some paint missing from the wheel, and Jack told me it
was where he had worn it off in his effort to keep her off the point,
but of course I know he was joking. He has promised me a trip in this
very boat, if we get time, but I have made him agree to call the regular
crew, and I mean to see that he does it too." Then after a bit she
wrote: "I am just dying for one breath of burning sagebrush; everything
here smells like fish or tar."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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