Friend
Speakman spoke of us. I thought I'd mention it to thee, and if thee
thinks well of it, we can send word down next week, when Josiah Comly
goes"

"What does THEE think?" asked his wife, after a pause

"He's a very quiet, steady young man, Friend Speakman says, and would be
very little trouble to thee. I thought perhaps his board would buy the
new yoke of oxen we must have in the fall, and the price of the fat ones
might go to help set up Moses. But it's for thee to decide."

"I suppose we could take him," said Abigail, seeing that the decision
was virtually made already; "there's the corner room, which we don't
often use. Only, if he should get worse on our hands--"

"Friend Speakman says there's no danger. He is only weak-breasted, as
yet, and clerking isn't good for him. I saw the young man at the store.
If his looks don't belie him, he's well-behaved and orderly."

So it was settled that Richard Hilton the younger was to be an inmate of
Friend Mitchenor's house during the summer.

II.

At the end of ten days he came.

In the under-sized, earnest, dark-haired and dark-eyed young man of
three-and-twenty, Abigail Mitchenor at once felt a motherly interest.
Having received him as a temporary member of the family, she considered
him entitled to the same watchful care as if he were in reality an
invalid son. The ice over an hereditary Quaker nature is but a thin
crust, if one knows how to break it; and in Richard Hilton's case, it
was already broken before his arrival. His only embarrassment, in fact,
arose from the difficulty which he naturally experienced in adapting
himself to the speech and address of the Mitchenor family. The greetings
of old Eli, grave, yet kindly, of Abigail, quaintly familiar and tender,
of Moses, cordial and slightly condescending, and finally of Asenath,
simple and natural to a degree which impressed him like a new revelation
in woman, at once indicated to him his position among them. His city
manners, he felt, instinctively, must be unlearned, or at least laid
aside for a time. Yet it was not easy for him to assume, at such short
notice, those of his hosts. Happening to address Asenath as "Miss
Mitchenor," Eli turned to him with a rebuking face.

"We do not use compliments, Richard," said he; "my daughter's name is
Asenath.

"I beg pardon. I will try to accustom myself to your ways, since you
have been so kind as to take me for a while," apologized Richard Hilton.

"