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| It was as if fate had intervened when Amelia and Jacob caught each other's eyes and began walking to Meeting together. Amelia had been shocked when her mother encouraged her and Jacob to study together. Most mothers in the village would have kept a keen eye on two young people of the opposite gender, but Sarah found work in the yard for herself and Collette - picking strawberries, bundling sticks, or tending the crops - allowing Jacob and Amelia time to compare opinions and bond in a way that they would not have been able to without their privacy. Jacob was a humble young man like his parents, but the hardest working in the village. Amelia was often frustrated by how hard he pushed himself, but Jacob knew no other life and did not mind how hard he worked. He wondered at the other boys who seemed to find so much free time and thought that they must be rather bored. "That was my favorite part of the Bible," Amelia told Jacob one evening as he was walking her home from Meeting. "What part is that?" Jacob asked, thinking back on the message. "'...And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.'" Jacob thought on the verse for a moment before he responded. "Why that verse?" She contemplated how to explain herself. "It is unimaginable the agony Christ felt and the fervor with which he prayed so that he sweat drops of blood. An angel came to strengthen him. Even in our most grievous times and most earnest prayers, none of us can ever say we have sweat drops of blood. It gives one an idea of Christ's humanity combined with his power." "I'm impressed that you have given that single verse so much thought," Jacob told her. "It says a lot for you." "What is your favorite verse?" she asked him. He sighed heavily, convincing himself to bear a piece of his soul he had not shared before, and quoted, "'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly: but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.'" Amelia was riveted as he recited every line and verse perfectly. "How is it that that verse is your favorite?" she asked when he was finished. "Because I want to live up to it. I try to read it each night before I crawl into my bed. There are plenty of men who do good works, but I wish to have a charitable heart and let any good that comes from me be borne from that." Amelia pondered him in silence for most of the rest of their walk. A new, deeper trust was shared between them, and they both understood what Sarah Corey had already discerned - their future. She whispered this secret to her sister after they had crawled into bed one night. Collette had simply whispered, "You would be a good match," and fallen off to sleep. Amelia was disappointed in her sister and was frightened that their growing up would grow them apart from one another. Amelia's fears seemed to be premonition, for it was only a few months later that Collette was swept off her feet by a handsome older circuit preacher, Reverend Samuel Everman, who had come to visit their church. He had a kind face that could twist into passionate agony when he stood in the pulpit to depict the punishment of sin and the fires of hell. In private, and only to Collette, he shared with sincere tears the grief he felt over the lost souls of the world that he felt he would never be able to reach. They exchanged letters for months until he was offered his own church in New Aubury - the nearest blossoming city - and Collette agreed to be his wife. With Collette gone, the cottage began to feel empty, as if a piece of it were missing. Sarah sank into depression and became more distant. Amelia could no longer identify with her mother, and any pleas she made with her sister were merely answered with letters from a woman who had removed herself from their simple world to take her prominent place in her husband's society. The combination of Sarah Corey's eccentricity and depression often caused her to behave in an irrational, emotionally agitated manner that frightened Amelia. She felt her mother was becoming insane, but would not share it with the townspeople. She knew the rumors about her mother. |