are welcome at Figeon's
Farm, and doubly so anyone who claims kinship with our guest and
very good friend Paul Stukely. And you come at a good time, too,
young sir; for we have a wedding feast in prospect, and we shall
want all the blithe company we can assemble to make merry at it.

"Come, my wench; you need not run away. You are not ashamed of
honest Will; and these gentlemen will doubtless honour our poor
home by remaining our guests a while longer, that they may tread a
measure at your marriage feast."

Paul looked smilingly at the blushing Joan, whose face was alight
with happiness, and her father continued laughingly:

"Oh ay, they have made it up together this very day; and poor Will,
who has been courting her these three years and more, cannot see
what there is to wait for--no more can I. For my part, since that
rascally Simon tried to carry off the girl, I have known no peace
about her. Figeon's is a lonely place, and the young know not how
to be cautious, and it's ill work for young blood to be cooped up
ever between four walls. Down in the village, with neighbours about
her, the wench will be safe enough, and Will's sturdy arm will be
her best protection. Simon might think twice about assaulting a
wedded woman to carry her away, when he would count a maid fair
spoil, seeing that he ever claimed to be called a lover of hers. So
all ways she will be safer wed, and I see no cause for them to
wait."

And indeed in those unsettled and troubled times fathers were glad
enough to get their daughters safely married at the first
reasonable opportunity. Farmer Devenish had another reason in
wishing Joan to leave her home. He was afraid that she might imbibe
the views her mother had embraced, and which he and his son could
not but give credence to, whilst they made no protest of having
altered their old way of thinking. But he had always forbidden his
wife to disturb Joan in her pious faith in the old religion. Such
hard matters, he said, were not for young wenches; and the peril
which menaced those who embraced the reformed doctrines was
sufficiently terrible for the mother to be almost glad of the
prohibition. It would be an awful thing for her if her daughter
fell under the ban of the law, and was made to answer for her faith
as some had been in so cruel a fashion before now.

So that there was no wish on the part of any at the old home to
hinder her marriage, and as soon as the young people had come to an
un