often the girls used to faint away and be carried out. Semantha Lee did,
at one time, almost as regularly as the Sabbath came round, until at
last a church committee was sent to labor with her. But Semantha was a
very free-spoken girl, and she said some hard things against Elder
Crane's prayers. I always thought that it was more her corsets than the
length of the prayers.

"I never fainted; for up in the new State I had run wild in the woods,
and, though I was a frail thing to look at, I had a deal of strength in
me. But my thoughts rambled a great deal too often; and sometimes I
doubted if I was as near God in Elder Crane's church as I used to be
lying on my bed in the chamber of the log-house, and saying my prayers
to the bright star that looked down so friendly. I asked mother about it
one day, and she said that surely God was about us everywhere; but she
added that the church was the appointed means of grace, and that I must
follow Elder Crane closely, and try to make my heart feel the words. I
did try, but there was so much about the Israelites in the house of
bondage, and Moses, and the sacrifices, that, do what I would, I always
lost myself in the Red Sea, and the chosen people entered the Promised
Land without me. At such times, when my thoughts went wandering, my eyes
followed them, and most frequently they went right over to Mr. Jacob
Allen's pew. I could not well help it, indeed, for his was a wall pew,
directly opposite ours. Mr. Allen seldom came to meeting, being old and
rheumatic, but his wife and girls came, and his son, Ephraim.

"At first I noticed Ephraim Allen just as I did the cobwebs upon the
walls, and the yellow streaks in the wainscoting; afterward I began to
see what a fine figure he had,--a whole head above his companions,--and
how broad-shouldered and erect and manly he was; the narrow-backed,
short-waisted coat that made the rest look so pinched and uncomfortable
sat gracefully and easily upon him. He had a wide, white
forehead,--though I did not notice this for a long time,--and short
curly hair, that looked very black beside the fair skin. Then his cheeks
were as bright as a rose, and his eyes--but I seldom got so far as his
eyes, because by some chance they always met mine, and then I was much
confused and ashamed. But always, in going out of meeting, he used to
bow to me in passing, and say, 'Good morning, Mercy'; and then I saw
that his eyes were a clear, dark blue, and I thought they