member of the Meeting.

The Mennonites present suffered a shock to their feelings upon the
appearance of the widow of the deceased Adam Schunk, for--unprecedented
circumstance!--she wore over her black Mennonite hood a crape veil!
This was an innovation nothing short of revolutionary, and the brethren
and sisters, to whom their prescribed form of dress was sacred, were
bewildered to know how they ought to regard such a digression from
their rigid customs.

"I guess Mandy's proud of herself with her weil," Tillie's stepmother
whispered to her as she gave the girl a tray of coffee-cups to deliver
about the table.

But Tillie's thoughts were inward bent, and she heeded not what went on
about her. Fear of death and the judgment, a longing to find the peace
which could come only with an assured sense of her salvation, darkness
as to how that peace might be found, a sense of the weakness of her
flesh and spirit before her father's undoubted opposition to her
"turning plain," as well as his certain refusal to supply the
wherewithal for her Mennonite garb, should she indeed be led of the
Spirit to "give herself up,"--all these warring thoughts and emotions
stamped their lines upon the girl's sweet, troubled countenance, as,
blind and deaf to her surroundings, she lent her helping hand almost as
one acting in a trance.

XI

"POP! I FEEL TO BE PLAIN"

The psychical and, considering the critical age of the young girl, the
physiological processes by which Tillie was finally led to her
conversion it is not necessary to analyze; for the experience is too
universal, and differs too slightly in individual cases, to require
comment. Perhaps in Tillie's case it was a more intense and permanent
emotion than with the average convert. Otherwise, deep and earnest
though it was with her, it was not unique.

The New Mennonite sermon which had been the instrument to determine the
channel in which should flow the emotional tide of her awakening
womanhood, had convinced her that if she would be saved, she dare not
compromise with the world by joining one of those churches as, for
instance, the Methodist or the Evangelical, which permitted every sort
of worldly indulgence,--fashionable dress, attendance at the circus,
voting at the polls, musical instruments, "pleasure-seeking," and many
other things which the Word of God forbade. She must give herself up to
the Lord absolutely and entirely, forswearing all the world's
alluremen