Mountaineering in Colorado [pp. 167-170]

MOUNTAINEERING IN COLORADO.
"Nay," said the curl, severely. "But thou wast vide a dower each year for the one among all the
in the secret.' He who sells the wine shares with maidens that year married who should appear to the
him who makes it.' I now declare that the be- judges to be the most blameless, and as such be en trothal of Louis and Adele shall be considered bind- titled to bear the symbol of the white rose. The
ing.-But for thee, my daughter "-turning with a cure and the mairie are not infallible, but they do
softened manner to the poor Addle, who is trembling, the best they can, and she is made Rosiere who
yet not altogether with fear-" for thee must there seems to them the most deserving. Marie, with all
be some punishment, lest it be thought that the her rich, dark beauty, is but a little girl in stature, so
Church gives its sanction to the meetings of young she is known (by way of distinction from the Rosiere
maidens with their lovers. It had been our inten- of the previous year, who was very tall) as La Petite
tion that on thy wedding thou, as the most blame- Rosiere.
less of the innocent daughters of our parish, shouldst As the two weddings are to be on the same day,
become the Rosiere for the year; but now the and the brides are so intimate, it has been arranged
blameless rose must be borne by another." between the two families that the principal fete shall
So saying, the good old cure drew Adele to his be at the house of Adele's parents. Hence on the
side, while he and Madame Rasse started toward the wedding-morning, almost before daylight, the guests
home of the Allauds. begin assembling at the house of the Allauds. The
Louis looked around exultingly for Marie, but peasant wishes not to lose a moment of the festivishe had disappeared. ties, and these are to last all the day and well into
"Ah! le bon Dieu!" said he, joyously. "But the the night: for there are to be the processions to and
saints have surely helped me!" from the mairie and the church, and treats of su On a stone at the bottom of the ravine, in the gared wine, and music and dancing, and at last a
midst of the shadows, was a deeper shade. dinner-such a dinner!
"Ah!" said the shade, "but I have made the joy- "It is," said Madame Rasse to her sister, "a
ful escape. They would have married me to one veritable triumph of a dinner."
who would have detested me. She is not so very "Vraiment," replies Madame Allaud, with a
pretty, after all; and then she can like such a fellow motherly smile; "and ce cher Louis is no scel6as that Sardou! Eh bien!' There is as good wine rat."
in the cellars as has ever been swallowed!'" After "Ma foi, non! but a much better and more mana long pause, the shade continued: "Marie is very ly-looking fellow than that Charles D6ligaud, who is
beautiful-more beautiful than Adele. I wonder I not within two inches of the height of our Louis!"
never thought of it before. What if she has no "Our little rose-bearer is much prettier than
dower? I have enough and to spare. And she has Adele," whispers the Veuve D6ligaud to the cure.
a heart. I will ask of my mother to speak for her. "Ma chore Adele," says Louis, softly, w ith anxAnd my mother will be ready enough to do so, for ious question in his passionate eyes, while winding
she never liked those Allauds, and will please her- his arm closely around the waist of his timid bride
self to show to them that I have not the broken heart." -" Adele, my sweet, dost thou truly love me?"
She does not answer, but blushes shyly, and
IV. thinks in her innocent heart how beautiful a thing
THE vintage is over, and the time of weddings it is to be beloved.
is therefore here. There are to be two in one day- "Thou art among the innocent the most blamethe young Louis Sardou with the pretty Adele Al- less, ma petite Rosiare," said Charles, proudly.
laud, and the young Charles D6ligaud with the little "Thou art very pretty, too, and thou lovest me?"
Marie. The last is to be the rose-bearer. To her "Truly do I love thee, mon Charles," murmurs
has been accorded the honor of bearing at her wed- Marie., Then she looks into the depths of the
ding the "white rose of purity." Long ago some white rose she bears, and trembles in her lonely
good gentleman left by will a sum of money to pro- i heart; while Charles looks at Adele and sighs.
MO UN T, IAINEERING INX COLORA D O.
BY WILLIAM H. RIDEING.
A S I came East from Colorado last summer my
opposite neighbor in the Pullman car was a
pale young American lady, with the most interesting
and distressing of coughs, and the whitest and thinnest of hands, which were streaked with faint blue
veins like the lines in marble. She told me with evident pride that she had been "roughing it" in the
mountains with a party of friends-breathing the
pungent, vitalizing exhalations of the pines which
scent the valleys and the hillsides. Guides, servants,
and portable cooking-stoves, had made the excursion
a very pleasant one for her; and I revert to her, not
because she is the delicate substance of a fragrant
memory, but because her experiences in mountaineering were in marked contrast to my own, which had
been derived in the toilsome way of Lieut nant
Wheeler's geographical explorations.
I had often seen parties such as I supposed hers
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