"[30]
The word _tarry_, in the sense of _to stop_ or _to stay_, was more used
by our ancestors than by the present generation; yet we think that
Lieut. Anbury was mistaken in his idea that the _tarrying_ was but for a
single night. It is true that marriages were early, and probably the
courtships were short, but we all know enough of New England _sparking_
to know that a single night was cutting it rather short; and yet it is
easy to see how Anbury should get his erroneous idea. True, if the lover
was so unlucky as to get his final dismissal the first night, there was
an end of the matter, and well might they fail to meet again; but, in
that case, it is not likely that the favors of which he could boast
would be such as to seriously affect the reputation of the girl with
whom he tarried. The fact that in the custom of _tarrying_, the parties
also _bundled_, does not authorize the synonymous use of the two words,
which have nothing in common. For, doubtless many young men _tarried_
with their sweethearts, who did not _bundle_ with them.
Again, when, on a sabbath night, the faithful swain arrived, having,
perhaps, walked ten or more weary miles, to enjoy the company of his
favorite lass, in the few brief hours which would elapse before the
morning light should call him again to his homeward walk and his week of
toil, was it not the dictate of humanity as well as of economy, which
prompted the _old folks_ to allow the approved and accepted suitor of
their daughter to pursue his wooing under the downy coverlid of a good
feather bed (oftentimes, too, in the very same room in which they
themselves slept), rather than to have them _sit up_ and _burn out
uselessly_ firewood and _candles_, to say nothing of the risk of
catching their _death a' cold_? Indeed, was not the sanction of bundling
in such cases a tacit admission, on the part of the parents, of their
perfect confidence in the young folks, which necessarily acted upon the
latter as, at once, a strong restraint from wrong, and a strong
incentive to right doing? The influence of early religious training, the
powerful control which the church had obtained upon the social and
domestic life of the people, and the superstitious aspect which, in
those days, the gospel was made to wear, must also be taken into the
account.
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