sburgh a nine days' wonder indeed!"

"The wonder would not hurt," said Mistress Stagg simply.

"Far from it, my dear," agreed Mr. Stagg, and closing his snuffbox, went
with a thoughtful brow back to the playhouse and the Tartar camp.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE MISSION OF TRUELOVE

Mistress Truelove Taberer, having read in a very clear and gentle voice
the Sermon on the Mount to those placid Friends, Tobias and Martha
Taberer, closed the book, and went about her household affairs with a
quiet step, but a heart that somehow fluttered at every sound without the
door. To still it she began to repeat to herself words she had read:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God ... blessed are the peacemakers"--

Winter sunshine poured in at the windows and door. Truelove, kneeling to
wipe a fleck of dust from her wheel, suddenly, with a catch of her breath
and a lifting of her brown eyes, saw in the Scripture she had been
repeating a meaning and application hitherto unexpected. "The
peacemaker ... that is one who makes peace,--in the world, between
countries, in families, yea, in the heart of one alone. Did he not say,
last time he came, that with me he forgot this naughty world and all its
strife; that if I were always with him"--

Truelove's countenance became exalted, her gaze fixed. "If it were a
call"--she murmured, and for a moment bowed her head upon the wheel; then
rose from her knees and went softly through the morning tasks. When they
were over, she took down from a peg and put on a long gray cloak and a
gray hood that most becomingly framed her wild-rose face; then came and
stood before her father and mother. "I am going forth to walk by the
creekside," she said, in her sweet voice. "It may be that I will meet
Angus MacLean."

"If thee does," answered one tranquil Friend, "thee may tell him that upon
next seventh day meeting will be held in this house."

"Truly," said the other tranquil Friend, "my heart is drawn toward that
young man. His mind hath been filled with anger and resistance and the
turmoil of the world. It were well if he found peace at last."

"Surely it were well," agreed Truelove sweetly, and went out into the
crisp winter weather.

The holly, the pine, and the cedar made green places in the woods, and the
multitude of leaves underfoot were pleasant to tread. Clouds were in the
sky, but the spaces between were of serenest blue, and in the sunshine the
creek