mother and I have decided it would gratify us
greatly in the Lord, if thou shouldst see thy way clear to take thy
cousin Rachel."

"Rachel!" He had more than half suspected this and dreaded it. There was
also a feeling that Rachel cared for him. He could not imagine himself
in love with her. Love was something more than a cool, friendly regard,
meals properly cooked, and a house well kept; thriftiness and laying
farm to farm.

"Well, does it take thee so by surprise? Moreover, we both know she has
a deep regard for thee."

"I have not thought of it in that way. I am in no haste to marry," the
young man replied hesitatingly, casting about for a more forcible
rejoinder.

"A good wife is a good thing, and thou mayst look far and wide and not
find thy cousin's equal. She is well grounded in the faith, and I have
observed with sorrow thy tendency to stray from the old landmarks, but
youth hath such seasons until the carnal will is subdued. Then it will
need to make no change in our living. Thy mother and I can grow old in
this, the home of our youth, and see our children, and our children's
children, mayhap, growing up, well trained in the faith."

"I will consider it," Andrew said gravely.

"Lay my counsel to heart for thy mother's sake."

Andrew Henry went on with his work, but he knew a crisis had come in his
life. Like many another Friend trained in the ways of peace he had a
horror of the cruelties of war, of which he had heard and seen much
since the battle of Germantown, and shrank from the thought of taking
any human life. On the other hand was the brave and boundless
aspiration for liberty and a country of one's own, that had thrilled him
when he heard the Declaration of Independence read. And now that France
had held out a helping hand, and the English Parliament was divided, the
aspect looked more hopeful to him. But for his parents he would go at
once and cast in his lot with the heroes at Valley Forge, to whom
patriotism was as brave a religion as that of Roger Williams.

And Rachel! No, he could not marry her. All his soul rose up in revolt.
Not but what such marriages often occurred among Friends and were
reasonably happy. Very few sons or daughters went contrary to the advice
of their parents in such matters. And he knew to refuse would be giving
up his home.

If Rachel was soft-tongued and attractive like his mother, for Lois
Henry was still fair of face, visions of the pretty, graceful maidens in