, brethren, as our godly
pastor would say, that the heart of our beloved brother Sergeant Wright
is so filled with that charity which is love, that he hath lost his
proper and natural brazen-facedness, and can no more convey the
knowledge of his condition to the lady of his choice than can this
kettle utter the clamor which is natural unto it."

"Go thy ways for a saucy hussy," exclaimed Mary, with sudden
consciousness, and with a mocking laugh the merry girl was gone. But the
fat was in the fire, and when Goodwife Hoyt returned with more sap, she
found the syrup there too, and the Sergeant kissing the unresisting Mary
behind a neighboring maple. For which wanton proceeding the good woman,
since she could not banish him from her family, sent away her daughter
to dwell with a distant relative, saying ere she went:

"I do prophesy that this silly affection will presently fail; so long as
I have a tongue in my mouth I will speak against it, for the knowledge
that I have of Sergeant Wright tendeth not to edifying."

The Sergeant did not reply verbally; but when Mary in her exile opened
her Bible to the chapter containing the text which had led to a
declaration, she was attracted by another which bore marginal notes in a
well known hand and which seemed to answer for him:

"Charity," which is love, "_never_ faileth; but whether there be
_prophecies_, they shall fail; whether there be _tongues_, they shall
cease; whether there be _knowledge_, it shall vanish away."

Time passed on, and one winter's night the French and Indians burst upon
the little town of Deerfield, and carried it away captive. The last
sight that the Sergeant caught through the open kitchen door was of the
great brass kettle which he and Mr. Hoyt had the night before filled
with wort or new beer, standing by the side of Mary's ironing-board;
then the blazing timbers fell over both with a deafening crash, and he
was marched away with pinioned arms.

The horrors of that captivity are too well known to need repetition.
Through them all Sergeant Wright, by his manly heroism and patient
endurance, his care for Sally, and filial devotion to Mrs. Hoyt, at last
so won her unwilling heart that she was constrained to admit that the
old prejudicial knowledge which she had of him had vanished away.

The efforts put forth by the French to induce the captives to remain in
Canada are notorious. A young French officer having fallen in love with
Sally Hoyt, a Jesuit