"
HIS MARRIAGE
[Sidenote: _William Cobbett_]
When I first saw my wife she was _thirteen years old_.[5] I was within a
month of _twenty-one_.[6] She was the daughter of a sergeant of
artillery, and I was the sergeant-major of a regiment of foot, both
stationed in forts near the city of St. John, in the province of New
Brunswick. I sat in the same room with her for about an hour, in the
company of others, and I made up my mind that she was the very girl for
me. That I thought her beautiful is certain, for that, I had always
said, should be an indispensable qualification; but I saw in her what I
deemed marks of that sobriety of _conduct_ ... which has been by far the
greatest blessing of my life. It was now dead of winter, and, of course,
the snow several feet deep on the ground, and the weather piercing cold.
It was my habit, when I had done my morning's writing, to go out at
break of day to take a walk on a hill at the foot of which our barracks
lay. In about three mornings after I had first seen her, I had, by an
invitation to breakfast with me, got up two young men to join me in my
walk; and our road lay by the house of her father and mother. It was
hardly light, but she was out on the snow scrubbing out a washing-tub.
"That's the girl for me," said I, when we had got out of hearing.
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