to any one to think the groomsman’s request peculiar, or to take offence at the bride’s willing acceptance. On the contrary, they would have been offended had she answered differently, and severely blamed her for letting a strange person take over the care of her lover’s household and child. The usual custom in our mountains is for the bride not to go to her husband’s house till a few weeks after the wedding, but only when it is convenient; it is just as usual, when circumstances demand it, for her to go to her new home as soon as the banns are published. She does so when her mother-in-law is very old or bed-ridden, and wishes to be relieved of the household cares; or when the daughter who had done the work marries; or when illness, demanding immediate and urgent care, has broken out in the family. In short, as soon as the bridegroom has got his father-in-law’s consent, the bride considers herself as belonging more to his family than her own, and feels it her duty to help him under all circumstances, as befits a true and faithful companion. The bridegroom, on his part, is also ready to help her family as though he were a son.
Everybody had predicted that Vendulka
288 B3
