Page:A Colonial Wooing.djvu/102

 After all, it was not strange that observing people should continually associate John and Ruth in their minds, although so very seldom were they seen together. An aged Friend that day had expressed surprise when she overheard John humming a lively air to himself. "John, I am shocked at thy increasing worldliness. Has thee no greater concern than spending thy time with idle music and the world's follies?"

"Did not David play upon a harp and sing psalms? There was and is nothing particularly worldly about my thoughts at this time. I was thinking of a friend and felt particularly happy, and silence does not suit my heart, which at times must speak out, in what thee called music, but which I take it was hardly that."

"When concerned with the weighty words of Friends who have ministered unto us, would not silence be more fitting?"

John laughed merrily, to the questioner's astonishment. He was not thinking of a Friend of that sort. "I confess, Neighbor Bunting, that I was thinking of one among