“I think tonight I’ll tell you about my brother Joe’s infare,” said Grandma one evening when Bobby and Alice and Pink had come to her room for their usual good-night story. “But first,” she went on, before the children had time to ask any questions, “I’d better tell you what an infare was. It was a sort of wedding reception which took place at the bridegroom’s home, usually the day after the wedding. It was the faring or going of the bride into her husband’s home and was celebrated with great rejoicing and a big feast.
“Joe had married Sally Garvin, who lived four miles from us by the road but only two miles through the fields. They had been married the day before, and we were to have the infare.
“Mother and the girls and Nanny Dodds had baked and cooked for a solid week. And before that they had cleaned the house from top to bottom, and we had mowed and raked and swept the big front yard and the orchard across the road and the pasture lot by the house. Now the great day had arrived.
“Stanley had gone in our surrey to drive the bridal couple home, and Truman and the girls had ridden horseback to meet them. Charlie had brought Hunter, Stanley’s colt, down to the barn lot so he could go with them. But Mother was afraid to have him ride the colt, not knowing that he practiced riding him every day in the pasture field.
“From my lookout on the rail of the front portico I saw the first of the guests come over the top of two-mile hill. There was a number of young men and girls on horseback, followed by our surrey with Stanley driving. On the back seat I knew the bride and groom sat.
“I waited for nothing more. I jumped down and rushed off to the kitchen to tell Mother. Mother gave Nanny some instructions about the dinner, slipped off the big gingham apron that covered her gray silk dress, patted her hair before the mirror in the hall, and, taking Father’s arm, went down the path between the rows of bachelor’s buttons, foxglove, Canterbury bells, and ribbon grass to welcome her first daughter-in-law.
“When Sally and Joe had left Sally’s home, a number of friends and relatives had started with them. These had been added to all along the way by other friends, so that there was quite a crowd of folks when they reached our house, besides lots of people who had already come.
“As soon as Mother and Father had greeted Sally, Belle and Aggie hurried her upstairs to the spare chamber to put on her wedding dress. Sally was little, with pink cheeks, and brown curls which she wore caught at the top of her head and hanging down her back very much as the little girls wear their hair now, only the young ladies of that day wore a high-backed comb instead of a ribbon. She wore a new gray alpaca trimmed in narrow silk fluting, very pretty, but nothing like what the wedding dress would be. The wedding dress had been made in Clayville, and Belle and Aggie and everybody else were eager to see it.
“Joe brought up the telescope which held Sally’s things and went back downstairs. The girls were going to help Sally dress, and I kept as much out of sight as possible so I could see and yet not be seen.
“‘Open it up, Aggie, please,’ said Sally, pointing to the telescope, ‘and lay my dress on the bed. I do hope it’s not wrinkled.’
“Aggie lifted the telescope from the floor to a chair.
“‘My goodness, but it’s heavy!’ she cried. ‘What in the world is in it, Sally?’
“Sally turned from the mirror.
“‘Heavy?’ she said surprised. ‘Why, there’s hardly anything in it. I packed it myself. I wanted to be sure my dress wouldn’t be wrinkled, so I just put in the dress and a few other things to do until tomorrow.’
“Aggie rapidly unbuckled the straps and lifted up the lid. Sally gave a smothered cry and caught Belle’s arm.
“‘Somebody has made a mistake,’ she gasped. ‘It is the wrong telescope!’ and she threw herself across the bed and burst into tears.
“The telescope was packed tight full with towels, pillow slips, tablecloths, and sheets and was to have been brought over the next day with the rest of Sally’s things. In the excitement of leaving, some one had carried it down and placed it in the surrey instead of the one containing the wedding dress.
“‘You look awfully sweet in this little gray dress, Sally,’ Aggie tried to console her. But it was no use, for Sally knew quite well that waiting downstairs were girls in dresses that looked much more bridelike than the gray alpaca. To be outshone at one’s own infare—well, it was no wonder she cried!
“Belle suggested that Stanley or Truman go back for the wedding dress, but Sally objected to this. She said people would laugh at her and never forget that she had gone to her infare and left her wedding dress at home.
“Suddenly a thought came to me. Hunter was still in the barn lot. Charlie could ride him, and he went like a streak. It was only two miles through the fields to Sally’s home. I never stopped to think that Mother would be frightened if she knew Charlie was on Hunter, or that Father would probably forbid it, or that Charlie might ruin his new Sunday suit. I slipped out of the room and went in search of Charlie. I found him out front pitching horseshoes, and in no time at all he was off to Sally’s home without a soul knowing about it. Then I went upstairs to tell the girls what I had done.
“They were not very hopeful. It didn’t seem possible that Sally could stay upstairs till Charlie got back with the dress, but she said she would wait a little while anyway. She got up and bathed her face, and Belle and Aggie went down to entertain the guests. Belle started several games, such as ‘Strip-the-Willow’ and ‘Copenhagen,’ and Aggie played the piano.
“I was everywhere—in the kitchen begging Nanny to hold the dinner back as long as she could (I had let her into the secret), on the hill behind the house watching for Charlie, and in the spare chamber trying to cheer Sally up, for at the end of an hour there was no sign of Charlie.
“What could have happened? He had said he could make it in less than an hour. He had been gone an hour and twenty minutes! People were wondering why Sally did not appear. They had lost interest in the games and were dropping out and sauntering toward the house. Aggie had played everything she knew over and over. Belle had run up to tell Sally she would have to put on the gray dress and come right down, but Sally had coaxed for five minutes more. Belle went back and started the folks singing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ The five minutes were up and Sally was putting on the gray alpaca dress when Charlie came.
“The people who had begun to wonder what was keeping the bride forgot about it when Sally came down and stood with Joe to receive their good wishes and congratulations. Her dress was heavy cream-colored silk with tiny pink rosebuds scattered all over it, and the full skirt was ruffled clear to the waist. The round neck and elbow sleeves were finished with filmy white ruching, and she wore white satin slippers. With her pink cheeks and shiny brown curls I thought she was the very prettiest bride any one ever saw.
“When they had gone into the dining room, where Annie Brierly and some other little girls were waving peach switches over the tables to keep the flies and bees away and Sally was saying who should sit at the bride’s table, Charlie told me what had kept him. He had found the Garvins’ house locked up and had had to climb in a window to get the telescope. The dog had seen him as he had gotten in and wouldn’t let him come out until Charlie had fed him and made friends with him.
“Then some one called us and said that Sally wanted Charlie and me to sit at the bride’s table. No one could have been more surprised than we were, for we hadn’t expected to eat till the third table at the very soonest, and here we were invited to sit at the bride’s table and have our pick of the choicest food!
“There! I hear Mother calling. Good night, good night, good night.”