A BRIDE'S JOURNEY.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 87, 31 January 1885, Page 4

A BRIDE'S JOURNEY.

Shol'lh you wish to know to what heigh artibtic gardening can be brought, let mi advise you to pay a visit to Haarlem (ii Holland), where, near the beautiful parl Jilled with deer, which makes such i beautiful walk, you will find the iamoui horticulturist, Claereboets. After he ha: shown yon his astonishing collection o tulips, hyacinths, carnations, anemones crowsfeet, camellias, primroses, cowslips cacti, and pelargoniums, you will be de lighted. Try and persuade him to alloy you to sec his six remaining daughters, anc you ill be dazzled. It is the story of the seventh, or rather the first, which I am about to tell you, just as this worthy man, who has remained poor, although his conservatories are full ol treasures, told it me last year. At the end of the year 1882 he had sever daughters on his hands. However, the Misses Claereboets were as virtuous as they were lovely ; as sensible as they were poor; alas ' and their appetites were only equalled by their virtue. One winter's evening, at the end of one of those meals which absorbed all the pro fits of the business, Claereboets lighted his pipo, and with a mysterious air drew from his pocket a letter with a foreign postmark. "({uess who has written to me? he said. Seven pairs of well-developed shoulders shrugged simultaneously, expressive of ignorance " Why, Micheels Maassen, the son of our former neighbour, tho contractor. He is tho casher of Planter Van Meeruyt, in Java. He wishes to settle down, and seeks one of your hands in marriage." "Which one, papa?" exclaimed five somewhat tremulous voices. " It's the same to him. He was eleven years old when he left, he is now twenty - eight, so you may understand that he has no choice. It is for you to decide, and I am going to take your opinion, beginning at the oldest. Well, Mina, will you marry Micheels?" "Yes, papa," replied the eldest Miss Claereboets, without hesitation. She was a magnificent blonde, twenty-four years old. Around the silent room six discreetly subdued sighs were heard. "Right, my child," said the father, as quietly as if it had been the matter of deliveringahundredhyacinths. " Micheels is a good fellow with excellent references. He sends his deeds, all in order, to the lawyer for tho marriage. "We will avail ourselves of its being fall to consummate the affair, so that you shall not arrive there in the hot weather." Three weeks later Mina had become Mrs Maassen. When I say had, it requires some explanation. The Dutch, the best colonists in the world and the most practical people I know of, have devised an easy means by which their single friends settled in the antipodes can easily be married in the metropolis. To make the bridegroom, pass two months at sea, thereby to attend tile registry for ten minutes and the church for perhaps double the time, was ba.rbarity. To send out the intended was. dangerous. She might find the suitor eat en up oy a tiger. To get over this the* Dutch instituted marriage by proxy. Fo r instance, you may be at Sumatra and you wish a fine-looking helpmate. You have j nothing to do but to

telling the tale for the ninety-ninth time they were stopped at the first word. " Micheels Maassen ! He was here four days ago. A strange adventure happened him. He was expecting a young woman by the eteamer whom he had married by proxy, on the other side, and the agent had given him another one. Maassen was not pleased, for the exchange was not for the better. " l "I believe you," said Hans, with a confident air. "But what did he do with my wife ?" "Oh! she's yours? Well, he took her away, feeling sure that the real husband would follow to claim her and bring him his own. He even left his address. He lives on the other side of the island, between Pourworedjo and Patyan." " Well," said Hans, " here's a cool kind of a customer ! One would imagine with him that it was rather a matter of a change of umbrella 3 in a ca/6 than of a human being. Here we are again for an eight days' journey." After some days at sea a furious tornado arose, sweeping everything away ; lightning 1 flashed, thunder rolled, and the monster waves rose like huge mountains on every side. By a miracle the ship was saved. In the morning all were astonished to find themselves alive, the captain more than any. Everything was gone ; the compasses were unset ; but he knew these seas so well that it made no difference. u I ought to have an island in front of me, just here," he remarked ; " but I see nothing." After seeking for the island half a day, it was found to have disappeared entirely, with all its inhabitants. So they made for a neighbouring town, bnt in this ever-famous night the neighbouring town and the authorities to whom the captain had intended making his report had also disappeared. It was no longer a question of the plantation of Van Meersuyt, or the cashier of the bank, or the poor Anna. Hans and Mina were widower and widow — that is to say, 1 don't think they wept much over their respective and unknown spouses. They will not be able to marry for some weeks. The Dutch law enacts that widows may not marry within a certain period of the death of their husbands ; so that Hans must submit to wait.