from wrinkles, and soft as the skin of a child. I never saw a wrinkled Quakeress in my life: they are too sweet-tempered to allow of that deformity. The boys, and sometimes the girls, made her shop a sort of juvenile exchange.

CHAPTER XX.

MISCELLANEOUS.

PUBLIC RELIGIOUS MEETINGS OF “ FRIENDS.”

-The most noted assembly was held at the spring "yearly meeting." During my boyhood, no season was more earnestly looked for, by old and young, than this convention; embracing all New England, and delegates from other similar associations, at home and abroad. According to tradition, rain was always expected about this time: I will not vouch for the fulfilment of the prediction, nor for a similar anticipation when the basket-vendor made his appearance. I was never able to trace back, in any of the Rhode-Island legends, why Quaker gatherings and basket-vending had any thing to do with the falling of rain; but my ears could not have deceived me, when at the appearance of the neat slate or drab colored bonnet, and at the cry of" Baskets," I heard "Look cut for

rain." So much for an episode which may have tired the reader; and yet I may appeal to a sober fact, that very many pleasant books, not mine however, are made up of inconsequential fancies. I deal in facts, and not in fancies, and will go on with my account of "Friends' meetings."

The meeting began on First day, Sunday, at Portsmouth, on the island, and at the adjournment, to assemble for business on Second day, Monday, at Newport, and continued from day to day, until the close of the following First-day (Sunday) afternoon. During the previous week, the town was filled with " Friends," clothed in their peculiar garb, exquisitely neat, and of the subdued colors which contrasted so strikingly with the showy dress of the world's people. was pleasant, however, to see the readiness with which every house was thrown open for the hospitable entertainment of "Friends," strangers sometimes, drawn together from all quarters, and even from distant continents, for communion and sympathy. Nothing excited my notice so much as the caps worn by the staid women and lovely girls. I had often heard of sheer muslin; but,

It

when seen in stomachers and caps faultless in whiteness and polish, the impression of the beauty and the fitness of that material, as worn by the guests in my mother's family, has never been effaced from my memory.

At the final Sunday-afternoon meeting, which was held at a later hour than usual for the accommodation of outsiders from other churches, the gathering was immense. At one of these anniversaries, the public were permitted to hear addresses from two young women, one of them recently from England, both very handsome and wonderfully eloquent. The English devotee, Ann Alexander, held the throng in breathless attention. The silence during her address was so profound as to be "felt ;" and, when disturbed for a moment by the emphatic elevation of the speaker's voice, it only became intensified from fear of losing an after-word.

MARRIAGES. If there was an entertainment I particularly relished in my boyish days, it was a Quaker wedding, so free from parade, and so eminently truthful and binding. With the world's people, a priest or magistrate is expected

to officiate; but, with "Friends," the parties themselves do the publishing and the marrying. At a public weekly meeting, they declare their intentions; and at a similar gathering, the week or fortnight following, just before the elders on the high seats prepare to close their silent or oral worship, they stand up, and, taking each other by the right hand, the man says, "In the presence of God and these witnesses, I,, take A. B., whom I hold by my right hand, to be my wife, promising, by divine assistance, to be unto her a faithful and affectionate husband; and, forsaking all others, I promise to cleave unto her, and to her alone, until God, by death, shall separate us." The woman, after the same manner, merely changing the pronouns, covenants fidelity and affection to the man whom she has chosen for her husband, so long as life lasts; and then they seal their vows, by repeating the gospel injunction, "Whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." After the solemnization of the rite followed the signing of the marriage certificate; first by the husband and wife, then

*The words I use may not be literally exact.