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56 BIOGRAPHY.
bleached by one and the same process; the thing was
incurable now.
If the wedding was celebrated on the large islet, Galon,
belonging to Asta, then the bride and bridegroom, each
with their train, arrived in boats decorated with foliage ;
and when the procession returned, the bride sat in the first
boat, with her parents and bridemaids and musicians,
heading a long line of boats full of people in holiday
dress. On a fine day in autumn, such a procession, with
its music on the calm waters, was very imposing and
pleasant to behold.
We children were always invited to these weddings, but
were never allowed to go. The housekeeper and steward
always accompanied the bridal-train, and ‘were, together
with the clergyman, the guests of honor at the wedding
dinner, which usually lasted three or four hours, after
which dancing began, which I believe frequently was rather
boisterous, when the bridal-crown was to be danced off, as
it was called, and when there was a fight for the bride be-
tween the married and the unmarried women, which, of
course, was to end in such a way that the married ones
triumphantly carried her off.
Another autumn was now at the door. Instead of read-
ing aloud after tea, my father proposed that we should
-play whist, dummy, or chess, on alternate evenings. After
we had continued this for some time, Fredrika became
more and more melancholy, especially on those evenings
when the chess-board was brought out; for, when Fredrika
was check-mate, my father wanted to find out how she
could have avoided it, and the pieces were again arranged
as they stood before the fatal moves were made.
The same was done in my case, so that on these wretch-
ed chess evenings it often happened that the clock in the
old tower struck both eleven and twelve before we were
allowed to go to bed. The gout was again in my father’s
temper, and Fredrika trembled at the thought of the win-
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