ard
appearance there is no likelihood of getting passage,' one Friend was
saying.

'Ships in plenty there are bound for New England, but ne'er a one that
is willing to carry even one Quaker, let alone eleven,' Friend Roberts
answered. 'The colonists' new laws are strict, and their punishments
are savage. I know, Friends, ye are all ready, aye and willing, to
suffer in the service of Truth. It is not merely the threatened
cropping of the ears of every Quaker who sets foot ashore that is the
difficulty. It is the one hundred pounds fine for every Quaker landed,
not levied on the Friends themselves, mind you--that were simple--but
on the owner of the boat in which they shall have voyaged. This it is
that hinders your departure. It were not fair to ask a man to run such
risk. It is not fair. Yet already I have asked many in vain. Way doth
not open. We must needs leave it, and see if the concern abides.'

Clear as a bell rose the silvery tones of a young woman Friend, one who
had been formerly a serving-maid at Cammsgill Farm: 'Commit thy way
unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Shall
not He who setteth a bound to the sea that it shall not pass over, and
taketh up the isles as a very little thing--shall not He be trusted to
find a ship for His servants who trust in Him, to enable them to
perform His will?' As the clear bell-like tones died away the little
company, impelled by a united instinct, sank into a silence in which
time passed unnoticed. Suddenly, at the same moment, a weight seemed to
be removed from the hearts of all. They clasped hands and separated.
And at that very moment, although they knew it not, far away on the
broad seas, a man, wrestling on his knees in the cabin of his vessel,
was saying with bitter tears, 'E'en take, Lord, an so Thou wilt, though
I have no power to give her to Thee. Yet truly she is Thine.' When four
bells were sounded on the good ship _Woodhouse_, and a knock came to
the door of the cabin as the mate asked for directions, it was in a
steady voice that Master Robert Fowler replied from within, 'Mark a
straight course for London; and after--whithersoever the Lord may
direct.'

Blithely and gaily henceforward the _Woodhouse_ skimmed her way to the
mouth of the Thames and dropped anchor at the port of London. But as
yet Master Robert Fowler knew nothing of the anxious group of Friends
waiting to be taken to New England on the service of Truth (five of
them ha