of the sect; and his two children, Moses and Asenath,
vindicated the paternal training by the strictest sobriety of dress and
conduct. Moses wore the plain coat, even when his ways led him among
"the world's people;" and Asenath had never been known to wear, or
to express a desire for, a ribbon of a brighter tint than brown or
fawn-color. Friend Mitchenor had thus gradually ripened to his sixtieth
year in an atmosphere of life utterly placid and serene, and looked
forward with confidence to the final change, as a translation into a
deeper calm, a serener quiet, a prosperous eternity of mild voices,
subdued colors, and suppressed emotions.

He was returning home, in his own old-fashioned "chair," with its heavy
square canopy and huge curved springs, from the Yearly Meeting of the
Hicksite Friends, in Philadelphia. The large bay farm-horse, slow and
grave in his demeanor, wore his plain harness with an air which made him
seem, among his fellow-horses, the counterpart of his master among
men. He would no more have thought of kicking than the latter would of
swearing a huge oath. Even now, when the top of the hill was gained, and
he knew that he was within a mile of the stable which had been his
home since colthood, he showed no undue haste or impatience, but waited
quietly, until Friend Mitchenor, by a well-known jerk of the lines,
gave him the signal to go on. Obedient to the motion, he thereupon
set forward once more, jogging soberly down the eastern slope of the
hill,--across the covered bridge, where, in spite of the tempting level
of the hollow-sounding floor, he was as careful to abstain from trotting
as if he had read the warning notice,--along the wooded edge of the
green meadow, where several cows of his acquaintance were grazing,--and
finally, wheeling around at the proper angle, halted squarely in front
of the gate which gave entrance to the private lane.

The old stone house in front, the spring-house in a green little hollow
just below it, the walled garden, with its clumps of box and lilac, and
the vast barn on the left, all joining in expressing a silent welcome to
their owner, as he drove up the lane. Moses, a man of twenty-five, left
his work in the garden, and walked forward in his shirt-sleeves.

"Well, father, how does thee do?" was his quiet greeting, as they shook
hands.

"How's mother, by this time?" asked Eli.

"Oh, thee needn't have been concerned," said the son. "There she is. Go
in: I'll ten