“I do not think you are a slow fellow, John, and I like you now. I have liked you a long time! I have a chest and it is half full of fine linen. I have been busy.”
“Mary Jane, did you think of me as you spun the linen and dyed the wool?”
Mary Jane nodded again and picked up her knitting-needles. Her father came in and John jumped to his feet.
“Elder Andrews, may I have Mary Jane for my wife? She likes me, she says, and we need not wait? Will you let us have the banns published this Sabbath approaching? I am twenty, sir, and Mary Jane is sixteen. That is only a year younger than my father and mother were when they married and came to the colony.”
“Daughter, is this your wish?” her father asked.
A solemn hush fell on the group in the kitchen. Grandmother stood in the doorway and gazed affectionately on the oldest daughter of their family. She knew the sterling worth of the girl John Lewis desired for his wife, and she knew that if these young people married, another home would be established in the colony which would be a power for righteousness and godly living.
Mary Jane looked steadfastly at her father, and tucked her hand under John’s arm as she answered:
“Yes, Father.”
“Then God bless you both, my children, and may you believe all that is required in this world is for you to live justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
So saying, he walked quietly from the room. The brothers and sisters crowded about Mary Jane and John, and Jenny whispered as she put on her bonnet: “Mary Jane, I like your father.”