A Colonial Wooing
he would return promptly, or failing, would, if necessary, keep on his journey to Philadelphia.
Many were the errands he had been charged with by his wife and boys, for the journey to town was an undertaking of some magnitude, involving an expenditure of both time and money; but Matthew was not given to bothering about trifles, as he called much of everybody's business but his own. "I trust I shall find Friend Gardiner at home, for he can best aid me in my concern to secure a proper vessel," he said to himself; "if it was only the other way, there would be no difficulty. Still, there are Friends returning in almost every ship, and William will be on board." Say what he would to himself, Matthew did not find the outlook a pleasant one. What if she were the only woman on board? And with this thought the man's stern features sterner grew. He was taking a fearful responsibility on himself, and he knew it, and why? Because he had failed to make of Ruth a prim, spiritless Quakeress, blind to about all that makes a life worth
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