Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-28
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.


unfinching men and devoted women, has
gained small but sure feothold on Amer
lean soil. Rendered comparatively safe
from the encroachments of the Indians on
the one side and the Dutch and French on
the other by the league, offensive and de-
fensive, which had been formed in 1913
under the name of the United Colonies OF
New England, they have set steadily to
work TO establish cities and a Government
for themselves and after few years Of
deprivation they have succeeded in plant
ing small but fourishing colony subject
to Charles H., who has just been restored
to the throne of England.
Since 1856 the Plymouth settlers have
been waging hot warfare against the
Quakers, and with their stern Governor,
John Endicott, at their head, have perpe-
trated worse and worse cruelties upon
them. Perhaps the unprovoked outrages
committed against this innocent society
eliminated in 1869, when the sentence of
death was pronounced against three of
their number. The Government in 1866,
and again in 1867 and 1868, enacted spe-
cial laws for the suppression Of these here
tics, and the over-zealous Puritans were
only too eager to enforce them. With the
same spirit Of unreasoning exaction and
ruthless oppression which they had con-
dem ed in the clergy of the mother country,
they visited all sorts of judgments upon
the unhappy Friends. Fines were i'm
posed continually, whipping was COM
mon punishment, and several lost an ear as
penalty for non-conformity TO the laws.
Let us take peep at little Puritan
village lying just outside Boston as 1t basks
in the genial sun of an October afternoon.
A few houses of boards and many of I'M
hewn logs straggle up a low, gently-sloping
hill. Here and there rudely-built Chin
ney testified to the advanced idea of some
farmer; but most of the community hold
tenaciously to an ancient prejudice against
them, affirming that "smoke improves their
health and hardens the timber of their
houses Before some of the houses were
plats of asters and sunAowers, joyously
drinking in the warm sunshine. Clumps
of golden-rod dot the undulating meadow
lands and dusty roadsides like tongues of
yellow flame. Apple orchards, hung with
the silence by dropping plump pippin or
russell into the grass. Only the men and
oxen laboring in the distant fields, disturb
the hushed tranquility of the scene. All
else speaks of placid repose and happiness.
On the outskirts of the little settlement
nesting against a grove Of pines, stands
log house, unevenly fashioned and rudely
finished, the least pretentious in the neigh
borhood. A poor apology for a home it
would be, indeed, were it not for the clam
boring vines, which have twined them
selves around the unhewn pillars Of the
porch and chung and spread themselves
abroad over the roof The sweet-smelling
apple orchard and the well-tended beds of
herbs, of the sorts in which our great
grandmothers delighted, give the place
homelike aspect, and bed of nasturtiums
blaze with orange and red close by the
door. AS we look, girl of perhaps twenty
emerges from the door and stands for mo-
ment looking down the road, with her
hand shading her eyes. She is dressed
with the utmost simplicity, in the garb of
the Quakers, but her plain gray gown,
destitute of either drapery or adornment,
reveals the contour of slender and grace
full figure, while the caurse but snowy 'ker-
chief crossed over her bosom serves to
deepen the es'icate tint of her lips and
cheeks But it. is not these charms, nor
the soft gray eyes, nor the waving golden
hair, that make Deliverance Sothwicke
beautiful. Her beauty is rather spiritual.
The sweet peace of pure spirit shines
from her eyes, and lights up her features
with that holy Joy which enhances her
natural beauty. Her face is one which
might fit into some rare old painting of
the saints, with a martyrs crown; for the
strength and beauty of her character have
come through suffering and hardships and
deprivationf and she has come out of the
fire like gold tried in the smelter's furnace.
As she stil looks down the road quick
carmine flashes into her cheeks, and she
hastily turns about and busies her hands
with the clambering vine, plucking the
leaves with a tense, nervous grasp which
brushes them in her fingers. She feigns
abstraction until deep manly voice bids
her look round. Christopher Burden, the
young Puritan stands at the steps of the
porch, waiting for an invitation to enter.
His broad-brimmed hat shades stern,
though not unkindly face. The express
sion which now gives it strength and
character, might, under favorable condi-
lions stiffen into austerity. 1t is the
shadow of that obstinate persistence which
led his father, forty years before, to EN-
bark in the Mayflower with that dauntless
handful of men who set sail for a land full
of unknown dangers. His wide cape,
with its broad, rolling collar, is thrown
carelessly over his strong shoulders and
hangs nearly to his knees, relieving the
somewhat ungraceful effect of the loose
knee breeches. His brown stockings are
fine and well-itting, and the buckles to
his shoes are as large and highly polished
as his exacting conscience will permit.
''Come in, friend Christopher" said De-
Iiverance, with pretty simplicity of man
ner which accorded charmingly with her
plain dress and rustic surroundings.
z'Thee looks tired out"
"Thanks. The GOODNESS of the porch
tempts my tired limbs, and it would please
me much to talk with you. Hold, do not
trouble to get chair for me; this shady
step Is luxurious resting place for weary
man.
He sat down on the step. The girl re-
manned standing, regarding him shyly, but
wistfully, as he famed himself absently
with his hat and gazed out over the land
scape.
Have thy wrestlings at last convinced
thee of the error of thy ways, friend Chris
topher? she said at length; "and hast
thou come to tell me the good news ?"
NO. said Christopher, wiping his
browwith perplexed and uneasy gesture.
"My heart still clings to the religion Of my
father; but yet miss something in 1t which
you seem to possess"
"Ah,n exclaimed Deliyerance, eagerly,
''thou has adopted the letter of the law
only, and so hast missed the light which
shineth for all men. Hast thou now read
in Johns gospel how that light shone in
the darkness and the darkness eompre-
hended it not; and how that was the true
light that lighteneth every man that
u I l. L.. !. IL.