Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-03-31

Ten years have passed. There is change in
the Quaker village. The old meeting house on
the hill presents the same friendly appearance.
it is true; but new elders sit in the places where
tbe I'D ogss sat lElds5 GsPfs bread eTim
in the wonted seat on the wooden PLATFORM his
old farm house has passed into other hands;
the roses and vines that Martha Grant used to
tend are now trained by stranger hands; and
for these seven long years, since they laid her
father away in the old burial place. her feet have
never crossed the threshold of that oden home.
Reuben Kane-sn 'elder" now, and promot-
ed to highest offices, both temporal and spirit
ual, in the gift of the Society older and
wears a graver face than when We saw him last;
for the gravity is habitual now and seems deep
ly settled in his heart, too.
Since the day when Mrs. Philip Bentley came,
in her costly mourning robes aud leaning on the
arm Of her handsome, prOud-lOOking husband,
| to look, with sobs and tears, upon the calm,
white face of the elder in his coffin, Reuben has
not spoken with Martha; he has seen her once
since though, and that was in the city where
hedwelt and where the Quaker went on busl
ness connected with the Society; but she was
in her sumptuous carriage, with its tootmen IN
HAery, and he in his plain gray attire and broad
brimhed hat, and the distance was wide be-
tween them now.
Yet, as the elegant carriage was delayed a
moment at the street crossing, and be had leis-
ure to note her silken attire and the air Of con-
scious pride and wealth which begirt her, Reu-
ben Kane wondered if her heart did not go bach
sometimes to the home of her girlhood, and the
Quaker youth who had loved, but resigned hel
| there,-if she did not, amid the gay Pageantry
of her splendid life, hear the simple "thees' ano
"thous'' of her paternal dialect,-h, in the
| splendid church, where she knelt on VelVe
hassock and read from jeweled prayer-book
memory did no bring her sometimes dream o
other years and the simple exhortations OF he
plain Quaker creed in the old wooden meeting
house on the hill.
For Philip Bentley though he loved biz beau
tiful wife, was a proud man, and grew proude
and sterner with his years; and her he wedde,
fer her beauty, must never refer to her old
fashioned faith or home. -...
Perhaps had Martha Bentley been left to her
self inti1ne, she might have become all, or muci
her world husband desired her to be; but tn
veryl fact he laid his commands upon hel
weighed heavily upon nature unused to re.
straint and when she turned from her father
praye to her fashionable life again, it va
with sad feeling of loneliness and heay
heart.
| Yet she eHCa6ea 0cIStn N CLuGh VI PAAN
and went about her daily life. None, lookln
upon the magnihcently sttired woman OF fash
ion. would havs dreamed her the modest lIttl
Quaker maiden, who use to don her drab sll
bnnnpet and wend her way to the Quaker meet
inp-house on the hill. 1t was in such sPler
did attire. in her liveried carriage, that Reube
I Kane saw her that moment in the city; and
bore back to the quiet village no longer q drear
of Martha Grant, the elders daughter, weePin
over her dead fathers coffin, but the gay, spleI
did woman of fashion and wife OF the ne
Philip Bentley. .-------------
l. : Time passed; and then there came to Reube
a tale of the rich mans death. Suddenly smli
ten down in his worldly pleasures and Pursuitl
philip Bentley died and was buried; and HI
widow was left mistress of vast estate.
Such was the story that came to him IN b.
ouiet home; but remembering that vision
bauobty beauty sitting in her velvet lined cal
, rage in the city street, he only sighed, an
said to himself; -,
E MWell. Martha Bentley is rich and world
: woman now. God give her grace to keep be
heart from vanity, and preserve her from the d.
ceitfulness of riches. She is q changed woma
from the girl who used to trip lightly about th
old place wonder, or sit in the old meenng bous
: ON the hill All WE'LL" and with long sigh, u
grave-faced Quaker went about his daily tasi
again
There was a stir in Enfeld-thstis, as gre
> a stir as the placid equable-tempered Friends
4 the Society there found it possible to indule
E in. Sober. by rule, Quaker eountenances wo
0 Hooks of surprise; thees" and ''thons" fell no
!. matron,s lips at more glib pace than custom
e ~: and Knot Of broad brimmed men mig
e have been seen at various honrs OF the lof
: June day collected at 'ithe Corner IN eio