The prancing team and carriage came down the lane a little before 1:00 p.m. and after securing the team to the hitching rack, Silas hesitated, not knowing exactly how to proceed. But Father Russell opened the front door and welcomed their guest with a hearty, "Good afternoon, friend. Come right in."
So Silas entered the Russell home, his heart pounding his anticipation. Mother Russell and Hannah stood in the living room in their quaint Quaker dresses and each greeted the tall good-looking man demurely. Then they went into the dining room for the noonday meal which was ready to serve, hot and savory from the big kitchen range. Here he met the two boys who had been warned to be on their good behavior. As soon as they were seated, Father Russell invoked the blessing, and the food was passed around the table. The chicken was served on a blue willowware platter, and Silas heard for the first time how Hannah, when a little girl of ten, had gone to town with her father on one of his weekly trips and had been told by her mother, "After the list has been taken care of, if there is ought left, thee may get whatever takes thy fancy," She had chosen to bring something to her mother rather than get something for herself, and that which had pleased her was the blue willowware platter.
Hannah felt the hot blood rush to her cheeks as the story was told. Silas was sure he had never seen anything as lovely as the blushing little Quaker maid.
The apple pie was served with fresh sweet cream, but no coffee was offered. Quakers used very little coffee, but there was plenty of rich sweet milk practically ice cold from the spring house. Silas, who had lived in town all of his life, really enjoyed the fine country meal.
After it was over, Father Russell asked the guest if he would like to go see if all was well with the stock and other farm animals and the poultry, and to see the orchard on the hillside while Mother Russell and Hannah did the dishes. The two men went to the barn and found all well. Father Russell showed his guest the barrels of apples that had been harvested a week or so before; the smokehouse where the hams and shoulders of several pigs were being cured in the applewood smoke. He saw the slabs of bacon that hung against the walls. Crocks of headcheese and plenty of smoked sausage were there also. The root cellar had potatoes and other root crops and late fall vegetables. Many vegetables had been pitted for late spring use. One section of the barn held many pounds of black walnuts from the wild trees that grew in the river bottom. There were also piles of hickory nuts and filberts that grew in the woods.
The trip was a revelation to the man from town and he told the man from the farm that he was to be envied for his family would live well regardless of the war and the decline in buying.
When the men returned to the house, they all retired to the living room and gathered around the organ to sing a few hymns of praise. Silas joined in, and his rich tenor voice seemed to fill a vacant place.
Soon afterwards he made an excuse to leave because he did not wish to wear out his welcome, and his first visit to the Russell farm ended. As soon as he was gone, the boys started to tease Hannah about her old beau and she fled to her bedroom to think alone about the handsome man with the black hair and neatly trimmed beard.
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