She said nothing of this, but she pondered
upon it deeply. Thus did a few days of united duties make them more
thoroughly acquainted with each other than they could have been by years
of fashionable intercourse.
The young preacher soon after bade farewell, to visit other meetings in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Elizabeth saw him no more until the May
following, when he stopped at her house to lodge, with numerous other
Friends, on their way to the quarterly meeting at Salem. In the morning
quite a cavalcade dashed from her hospitable door on horseback; for
wagons were then unknown in Jersey. John Estaugh, always kindly in his
impulses, busied himself with helping a lame and very ugly old woman,
and left his hostess to mount her horse as she could. Most young women
would have felt slighted; but in Elizabeth's noble soul the quiet, deep
tide of feeling rippled with an inward joy. "He is always kindest to the
poor and the neglected," thought she; "verily, he _is_ a good youth."
She was leaning over the side of her horse, to adjust the buckle of the
girth, when he came up on horseback and inquired if any thing was out of
order. She thanked, with a slight confusion of manner, and a voice less
calm than her usual utterance. He assisted her to mount, and they
trotted along leisurely behind the procession of guests, speaking of the
soil and climate of this new country, and how wonderfully the Lord had
here provided a home for his chosen people.
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