NEW TENANTS AND OLD FRIENDS. 451 



and somewhere in the series there is a little blue-eyed 

 Kate, a namesake of the Mistress. 



" Was Penn cut off from membership for marrying 

 out of Meeting ?" 



No; he is still "in good standing," at least in so 

 far that he has not been formally "turned out." But 

 if you ask me why, I can give you no light l)eyond the 

 facts ; perhaps the subject is still under consideration 

 by the Society. Be that as it may, there are few more 

 regular worshipers at the Springfield Meeting House 

 than Penn Townes, and when family duties will allow, 

 Abby finds great pleasure in accompanying her hus- 

 band, especially as the traditional " scuttle " bonnets 

 have long since been eschewed by the younger women 

 Friends. The elder children also are sometimes taken ; 

 but such fidgeting as attacks the dear bairns during the 

 solemn quietude that often pervades the Meeting is 

 pitiful to see. To the mind of some of the stricter 

 Friends, it seems something very like a temptation of 

 the Adversary. But the major part, perhaps correctly, 

 attribute it Avholly to Friend Abby's stirring Yankee 

 blood. 



Hugh has left the tenant house and occupies a farm 

 of his own. Jenny lives at home, a soldier's widow. 

 Joe marched off Southward in the rebellion days with a 

 "Springfield rifle " on his shoulder — that weapon, by 

 the way, was not named after our old Quaker Meeting- 

 house — and returned with a major's golden leaf upon 

 his shoulder-straps. And Avell he deserved the honor, 

 his comrades all declare, Harry went into my count- 



