a golden cloud of protection and
confidence, dark, misanthropic, pining atheistic doubts, and fierce
despair, melted away before the light of a living Gospel, breathed in
living faces, preached by a thousand unconscious acts of love and good
will, which, like the cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple,
shall never lose their reward.

"Father, what if thee should get found out again?" said Simeon second,
as he buttered his cake.

"I should pay my fine," said Simeon, quietly.

"But what if they put thee in prison?"

"Couldn't thee and mother manage the farm?" said Simeon, smiling.

"Mother can do almost everything," said the boy. "But isn't it a shame
to make such laws?"

"Thee mustn't speak evil of thy rulers, Simeon," said his father,
gravely. "The Lord only gives us our worldly goods that we may do
justice and mercy; if our rulers require a price of us for it, we must
deliver it up.

"Well, I hate those old slaveholders!" said the boy, who felt as
unchristian as became any modern reformer.

"I am surprised at thee, son," said Simeon; "thy mother never taught
thee so. I would do even the same for the slaveholder as for the slave,
if the Lord brought him to my door in affliction."

Simeon second blushed scarlet; but his mother only smiled, and said,
"Simeon is my good boy; he will grow older, by and by, and then he will
be like his father."

"I hope, my good sir, that you are not exposed to any difficulty on our
account," said George, anxiously.

"Fear nothing, George, for therefore are we sent into the world. If
we would not meet trouble for a good cause, we were not worthy of our
name."

"But, for _me_," said George, "I could not bear it."

"Fear not, then, friend George; it is not for thee, but for God and man,
we do it," said Simeon. "And now thou must lie by quietly this day, and
tonight, at ten o'clock, Phineas Fletcher will carry thee onward to the
next stand,--thee and the rest of they company. The pursuers are hard
after thee; we must not delay."

"If that is the case, why wait till evening?" said George.

"Thou art safe here by daylight, for every one in the settlement is
a Friend, and all are watching. It has been found safer to travel by
night."

CHAPTER XIV

Evangeline

"A young star! which shone
O'er life--too sweet an image, for such glass!
A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded;
A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded."

The Mississ