than falling snow, crossed the floor; the
Indian Chief, unarmed, sat himself down in the nearest seat, with his
followers in all their war-paint, but also unarmed, close round him.

The Meeting did not stop. The Meeting continued--one of the strangest
Friends' Meetings, surely, that ever was held. The Meeting not only
continued, it increased in solemnity and in power.

Never, while they lived, did any of those present that day forget that
silent Meeting, or the brooding Presence, that, closer, clearer than
the sunlight, filled the bright room.

'Cover thee with His feathers all the day long.'

The Friends sat in their accustomed stillness. But the Indians sat
more still than any of them. They seemed strangely at home in the
silence, these wild men of the woods. Motionless they sat, as a group
of trees on a windless day, or as a tranquil pool unstirred by the
smallest breeze; silent, as if they were themselves a part of Nature's
own silence rather than of the family of her unquiet, human children.

The slow minutes slipped past. The peace brooded, and grew, and
deepened. 'Am I dreaming?' Mrs. Hoxie thought to herself more than
once, and then, raising her eyes, she saw the Indians still in the
same place, and knew it was no dream. She saw, too, that Benjamin's
eyes were riveted to some objects hanging from the strangers' waists,
that none of the other Friends appeared to see.

At last, when the accustomed hour of worship was ended, the two
Friends at the head of the Meeting shook hands solemnly. Then, and not
till then, did old Zebulon Hoxie advance to the Indian Chief, and with
signs he invited him and his followers to come to his house close at
hand. With signs they accepted. The strange procession crossed the
sunlit path. Susie and Dinah, wide awake now, but kept silent in
obedience to their mother's whispers, were watching the feathers with
clear, untroubled eyes that knew no fear. Only Benjamin shivered as if
he were cold.

When the company had arrived at the house, Zebulon put bread and
cheese on the table, and invited his unwonted guests to help
themselves. They did so, thanking him with signs, as they knew little
or no English. Robert Nisbet, the visiting Friend, who could speak and
understand French, had a conversation with one of the Indians in that
language, and this was what he said: 'We surrounded your house,
meaning to destroy every living person within it. But when we saw you
sitting with your door