em,--body or soul?" saith _Father_.

"Nay, I would say both two," he makes answer. "They run right to the
further end of every matter. Because they read in their Bibles that `in
the multitude of words there wanteth not sin,' therefore they do forbid
all speech that is not of very necessity,--even a word more than needful
is sin in their eyes. If you shall say, `Sit you down in that chair to
your comfort,' there are eight words more than you need. You see?--
there are eight sins. `Sit' were enough. So, one mouthful more bread
than you need--no, no!--that is a sin. One drop of syrup to your
bread--not at all! You could eat your bread without syrup. All that is
joyous, all that is comfortable, all that you like to do--all so many
sins. Those are the _Mennonites_."

"What sinful men they must be!" saith _Father_.

"Good lack, Master _Stuyvesant_, but think you all those folks tarried
in _Holland_?" saith Aunt _Joyce_. "Marry, I could count you a round
dozen I have met in this country. And they _be_ trying, I warrant you.
My fingers have itched to shake them ere now."

"How do they serve them when they would get them wed?" saith _Father_.
"Quoth Master _John_ to Mistress _Bess_, `Wed me' and no more?--and
saith she, `Ay' and no more? A kiss, I ween, shall be a sin, for 'tis
no wise necessary."

I could not help to laugh, and so did Aunt _Joyce_ and _Mother_.

"Wed!" makes answer _Mynheer_, "the _Mennonites_ wed? Why, 'tis the
biggest of all their sins, the wedding."

"There'll not be many of them, I reckon," saith Aunt _Joyce_.

"More than you should think," saith he. "There be to join them every
year."

"Well, I'll not join them this bout," quoth she.

"Now, wherein doth that differ from the old monks?" saith _Father_, as
in meditation. "Be we setting up monasteries for _Protestants_
already?"

_Mynheer_ shrugged up his shoulders. "They say, the _Mennonites_," he
made answer, "that all pleasing of self is contrary unto God's Word. I
must do nothing that pleases me. Are there two dishes for my dinner? I
like this, I like not that. Good! I take that I love not. Elsewise, I
please me. A Christian man must not please himself--he must please God.
And (they say) he cannot please both."

"Ah, therein lieth the fallacy," saith _Father_. "All pleasing of self
counter unto God, no doubt, is forbidden in Holy Scripture. But surely
I am not bid to avoid doing God's commandments, if He command a t