Page:The Leadbeater Papers (1862) Vol 1.djvu/42

parents, and whom Margaret Shackleton, (who was somewhat of a wit) used to call "a twig of the rod." Behold the venerable Abraham, in the first place devoting his time to the duties of religion and the services of his society, then indulging his taste for cultivating his lands and planting, having resigned the school to his son Richard. His wife, who was some years older than he, and debilitated by rheumatic pains, sate by her fireside, her countenance innocently sweet, her conversation innocently cheerful, and her heart truly humble. Her sister, Mary Barnard, a widow, was stout and active on her limbs, but being deprived of sight, she went about the house, felt the under parts of the furniture to try whether all was clean; examined closely the bottom of her petticoat lest a jag had been worn; made spring-pottage and sour-cake, of which her friends partook; was led among her poor neighbours, to whom she made little presents of a halfpenny lace, a row of pins, or gifts of equal value, which were kindly accepted from the simple, honest-hearted donor.

I hardly recollect the ancient mansion; the large room like that apartment which in similar residences in Yorkshire is called "the hoose" (neither parlour nor kitchen) in which was a closet, and in that closet an owl; the parlour where the afternoon meeting was held, with its sashdoor opening into the garden, and the map of Dublin, ornamented by pictures of its remarkable buildings, &c. over the chimney-piece. But "the Friends' room," so named from its being appropriated to the use of strangers, impressed my young fancy