It is not pleasant to me to look upon what
went before; but a season may come when it shall be lawful for me
to declare all things--nay, when it shall be put upon me as a duty.
Thee must suffer me to wait the call."
After this there was nothing more to be said. The family was on
terms of quiet intimacy with the neighbors; and even Sylvia, in
spite of her defiant eyes and worldly ways, became popular among
the young men and maidens. She touched her beloved guitar with
a skill which seemed marvellous to the latter; and when it was
known that her refusal to enter the sect arose from her fondness
for the prohibited instrument, she found many apologists among
them. She was not set upon, and called hard names, as she had
anticipated. It is true that her father, when appealed to by the
elders, shook his head and said, "It is a cross to us!"--but he had
been known to remain in the room while she sang "Full high in
Kilbride," and the keen light which arose in his eyes was neither
that of sorrow nor anger.
At the end of their first year of residence the farm presented
evidences of much more orderly and intelligent management than at
first, although the adjoining neighbors were of the opinion that
the Donnellys had hardly made their living out of it.
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