`` Thou art not of our people , '' said the Quaker , mournfully . `` No , we are not of your people , '' replied Dorothy , with mildness , `` but we are Christians looking upward to the same heaven with you . Doubt not that your boy shall meet you there , if there be a blessing on our tender and prayerful guidance of him . Thither , I trust , my own children have gone before me , for I also have been a mother . I am no longer so , '' she added , in a faltering tone , `` and your son will have all my care . '' `` But will ye lead him in the path which his parents have trodden ? '' demanded the Quaker . `` Can ye teach him the enlightened faith which his father has died for , and for which I -- even I -- am soon to become an unworthy martyr ? The boy has been baptized in blood ; will ye keep the mark fresh and ruddy upon his forehead ? '' `` I will not deceive you , '' answered Dorothy . `` If your child become our child , we must breed him up in the instruction which Heaven has imparted to us ; we must pray for him the prayers of our own faith ; we must do toward him according to the dictates of our own consciences , and not of yours . Were we to act otherwise , we should abuse your trust , even in complying with your wishes . '' The mother looked down upon her boy with a troubled countenance , and then turned her eyes upward to heaven . She seemed to pray internally , and the contention of her soul was evident . `` Friend , '' she said , at length , to Dorothy , `` I doubt not that my son shall receive all earthly tenderness at thy hands . Nay , I will believe that even thy imperfect lights may guide him to a better world , for surely thou art on the path thither . But thou hast spoken of a husband . Doth he stand here among this multitude of people ? Let him come forth , for I must know to whom I commit this most precious trust . '' She turned her face upon the male auditors , and after a momentary delay Tobias Pearson came forth from among them .
The Quaker saw the dress which marked his military rank , and shook her head ; but then she noted the hesitating air , the eyes that struggled XXXXX her own and were vanquished , the color that went and came and could find no resting-place .
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