u won't
pretend that Elder Crane is handsome enough to make it a pleasure to
look at _him_.'

"I was astonished, and Deacon Lee looked horrified, but Ephraim's face
glowed all over with smiles.

"'Ephraim Allen,' said the Deacon sternly, 'if you were a professor, I
should present you to the church for irreverence. As it is, I have done
my duty';--and with that he went away.

"Most of the people had left the meeting-house by this time, but a good
many of them were turning back to look at me where I stood near Deacon
Lee and Ephraim Allen. I suppose they didn't know what it could mean;
for in those days we always Walked soberly home from service, not
profaning the holy day by common talk. And this was the reason that I
was surprised and frightened when Ephraim, instead of going away by
himself, walked down the steps with me, and along the road at my side.
It was a good two miles home, and I had happened to come alone that day,
father being laid up with a cut in his foot, and mother staying at home
to nurse him.

"The path was a beautiful one, leading through deep, still woods, now
coming out into the edge of a clearing, and now running along a
brookside where there were flowers nodding over the water, and
bird's-nests in the thick grass on the bank; I thought sometimes that
the walk did me as much good as going to church, particularly if I came
alone, and stopped now and then to read my Bible by the way.

"So we walked along, Ephraim and I; and presently we passed a great
clump of witch-hazel bushes that were in all their bridal white, and
Ephraim picked a bunch of the flowers, and gave them to me. He had not
spoken a word since we started, but now he said, 'Are you very much put
out with Deacon Lee, Mercy?'

"This made me feel very much ashamed again, but I said I hoped I knew
better than to bear anger against anybody; and then--quite excited and
eager--I said I wanted him to forgive me if I had looked his way more
than was proper, and not think I meant to be forward or unmaidenly. And
Ephraim made reply that he would never believe any ill of me, no, not if
all the deacons in the world were to testify to it; and he said that he
owed Deacon Lee thanks for so bringing us together, for he should never
have had the courage to come to me, though he longed for a sight of my
face every day, and was constant at church, never missing a Sunday, so
that he might see me. All this he said in such an earnest, sincere
manner, a