THE STORY OF A YOUNG QUAKER
"I am so glad to see you again, Uncle Sam. It seems as though we had
been away a whole year, yet it is not four weeks."
Lucy talked very fast. Her cheeks were red as roses and her lips were
bright with excitement.
"Only four weeks! Yes, that is all, but it has been a long time to me,"
said Uncle Sam, as he bent down to take Lucy in his arms.
"You don't know how I have missed you children," he added. "I have been
a lonesome old man without you."
"We have ever so much to tell you," said Joe, who had followed Lucy.
"You know, this was our first visit to Philadelphia. We had never seen
our great-aunt before, either. She has lived there ever since she was a
young girl."
"She was so good, we began to love her at once," Lucy went on. "She has
a soft voice and she wears a gray dress and a white kerchief around
her neck all the time. When she spoke to me, she always said thee or
thou instead of you."
"That was because she is a Quaker," Joe broke in.
"I used to know your Aunt Rachel," said Uncle Sam. "It was a long time
ago, though. Now go on and tell me all about your visit."
The children had never heard that Uncle Sam had once loved their Aunt
Rachel very dearly. Everyone thought they would be married. Then she
went from home on a visit. While she was away she met a young Quaker
who soon became her husband.
Perhaps Uncle Sam never got over his love for the children's aunt.
Anyway, he never married.
"There are not very many Quakers in the country now," said the old man
as the children finished telling him about their visit. "There was a
time when they were glad to come to America. It was the only way they
could have peace. Would you like to hear about it?"
"Of course, Uncle Sam. We are so tired from our long journey we can
hardly move. Nothing would be nicer than to sit by your side and listen
to a story," said Joe.
Lucy showed she thought so, too, by pressing Uncle Sam's hand and
looking up at him with a pleased nod of her little head.
Uncle Sam smiled and began the story of
WILLIAM PENN THE QUAKER
A long time ago there was a rich man who lived in England. He was an
admiral in the English navy and a great friend of the king.
Admiral Penn had a son named William who was bright and handsome. The
boy had kind parents, a lovely home, and plenty of money to spend. The
family was a very happy one until William went away to college. It was
then that he first went to a meeting of the Quakers. He liked what he
heard, and he thought:
"I, too, would like to be a Quaker."
The Quakers believed quite differently from other people in England.
They were like the Pilgrims in one thing,—they would not go to the
regular church of the country, but had a different service among
themselves. They thought everyone should be free to worship God in
his own manner. They were quite different from the Pilgrims in other
ways, however. They thought it was wrong to fight, even to save their
country.
"One man should not take up arms against another," they said. They
believed it was not right to dress in gay colors. They said it makes
people proud and vain.
They spoke to each other simply, and used the words thee and thou
instead of you, after the manner of the Bible. They called themselves
"Friends," not "Quakers." The word "Quaker" was at first a "nickname,"
but is what they are now generally called.
It seems strange that a rich young man, brought up as was William Penn,
should care to join the Quakers.
He did care, however. He cared so much that he did not change his mind
even when he was driven from his college because of what he believed.
His father was very angry when he learned that his loved son had joined
with people who were despised by nearly everyone else. How Penn's
mother must have wept and pleaded with him!
It made no difference, however. The young man had made up his mind what
was right. He could not change his belief, even to please his parents.
When his father saw that words were of no use, he told William to leave
England and travel about in Europe. He gave him plenty of money with
which he could enjoy himself. Admiral Penn thought his son might forget
the Quakers while visiting other cities and having a good time.
It was not so, however. Soon after William Penn came home, he was sent
to Ireland on business. While he was there he went to several Quaker
meetings. He was arrested and put in prison because he was found in
these places. It was against the law for the Friends to hold meetings
or to attend them.
When Penn was free once more, his father sent for him to come home. He
said:
"I will forgive you everything if you will promise to do three things:
Take off your hat to the King, the King's brother, and to myself, your
father."
William Penn said he would think about it. He could not promise at
once, for the Friends did not think it right to take off one's hat to
certain people; all persons should be treated with the same honor.
After a while the young man came to his father and said:
"I cannot do as you wish."
His father was so angry that he turned his son out of doors. Young Penn
would have had a sad time if his mother had not sent him money to keep
him from want.
He began to preach in the streets of the city. He hoped other people
would listen to him and also become Quakers. It was not long before he
was arrested again. He was put in the Tower of London for breaking the
law. His cell in the Tower was a dark and dreadful place.
The king's brother was a great friend of William Penn. He tried hard to
have the young man set free. At last he brought it about.
Penn's father died soon after his son came out of prison. William was
now a rich man. He went again and again to the king, begging that
Quakers should not be whipped or put in prison.
At last he spoke of money which the king had owed his father. He said:
"You need not pay this money back to me if you will give me land in
America where the Quakers can have a free and happy home."
The king was willing to do this, for he owed a good deal of money and
found it hard to pay his debts.
The poor Quakers were allowed to come out of prison and seek a home
across the ocean. They called the country that the king had given
Penn, Pennsylvania, which means Penn's woods.
It could have had no better name. The country was covered with thick
woods, and the settlers had gained it through the kindness of William
Penn.
He came to Pennsylvania the year after the first settlers reached it.
He did not try to rule over his people. He said they should make their
own laws. He told them he wished the new home to be free to all. It did
not matter what a person believed. He should live in Pennsylvania in
peace and happiness.
He helped the Friends to lay out a city which they called Philadelphia.
That meant the city of Brotherly Love.
They had no trouble with the Indians. Penn sent word to the near-by
tribes that he wished to meet their chiefs. He said he meant no harm
to them. He would punish anyone who did a wrong to an Indian. He was
willing to pay them for the land where his people had settled.
One by one the chiefs arrived. They were all well armed and grand with
paint and feathers. They sat in a half-moon under a large elm tree.
Penn stood in their midst. He had no weapons whatever. The branches of
the tall elm tree waved gently overhead while the Quaker talked with
the Red Men and smoked the peace-pipe with them. He said:
"I will not call you my children, because fathers sometimes whip
their children. I will not call you brothers, because brothers
sometimes quarrel. But I will call you the same as we say of the white
people,—Friends."
He told them he and his people would treat them honestly. They wished
for peace always, and would do nothing to break it.
Before the meeting was over, the Indians promised to keep that peace
and to harm no Quaker. They gave Penn a belt of wampum. Wampum was very
precious to the Indians. It was made of peculiar shells. Penn's belt
was made of white ones. It had a picture in the middle made with purple
shells. This picture showed a white man and an Indian shaking hands.
The Red Men kept their promise. When they became old and ready to die,
they repeated it to their children, who also promised. Thus the Friends
lived in peace with the Indians, and Pennsylvania was the happy home of
many people.
Penn stayed a long time with his settlers. He often went to visit the
Indians in their villages. He joined them in their feasts. He played
with their children. The Red Men loved and trusted him.
When years passed by and the white men in other places had bloody wars
with the Indians, the Quakers among them were not harmed. The white
feather of peace was placed over the door of every house where Quakers
were living. That was the Red Man's sign for these words:
"No one here must meet with any harm. The Red Man is his friend."