no
injury, and I even hinted that the exercise would be of service to him.
Solomon himself neighed towards his master, and rubbed his head against
the good Quaker's shoulder, as if to assure him of his being quite well;
so that Joshua returned in comfort to his parlour, where breakfast was
now about to be displayed.

I have since learned that the affection of Joshua for his pony is
considered as inordinate by some of his own sect; and that he has been
much blamed for permitting it to be called by the name of Solomon, or
any other name whatever; but he has gained so much respect and influence
among them that they overlook these foibles.

I learned from him (whilst the old servant, Jehoiachim, entering and
re-entering, seemed to make no end of the materials which he brought in
for breakfast) that his grandfather Philip, the convert of George Fox,
had suffered much from the persecution to which these harmless devotees
were subjected on all sides during that intolerant period, and much
of their family estate had been dilapidated. But better days dawned
on Joshua's father, who, connecting himself by marriage with a wealthy
family of Quakers in Lancashire, engaged successfully in various
branches of commerce, and redeemed the remnants of the property,
changing its name in sense, without much alteration of sound, from the
Border appellation of Sharing-Knowe, to the evangelical appellation of
Mount Sharon.

This Philip Geddes, as I before hinted, had imbibed the taste for
horticulture and the pursuits of the florist, which are not uncommon
among the peaceful sect he belonged to. He had destroyed the remnants
of the old peel-house, substituting the modern mansion in its place;
and while he reserved the hearth of his ancestors, in memory of their
hospitality, as also the pious motto which they had chanced to assume,
he failed not to obliterate the worldly and military emblems displayed
upon the shield and helmet, together with all their blazonry.

In a few minutes after Mr. Geddes had concluded the account; of himself
and his family, his sister Rachel, the only surviving member of it,
entered the room. Her appearance is remarkably pleasing, and although
her age is certainly thirty at least, she still retains the shape and
motion of an earlier period. The absence of everything like fashion
or ornament was, as usual, atoned for by the most perfect neatness and
cleanliness of her dress; and her simple close cap was particularly