Chapter V.
A Worse Fate threatened.
The women of the Crosswicks Valley had little to entertain them beyond the affairs of the meeting and of their own homes. Visiting, in anything approaching a formal way, was not common. The houses generally were far apart and the roads and by-paths too rough, in many places, to make walking a pleasure, or more than practicable upon urgent occasion. Horses could not always be spared that women might ride. The long established custom, however, of attending meeting on First and Fifth days gave excellent opportunity for gossipy conversation, both before and after the services were over, and these were never neglected. How much could the old oak in the Crosswicks meeting-yard tell if there was a tongue in that tree! Its enormous branches overspreading a wide grass-plot have shaded many a fair damsel
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