nurses to me in this time of my religious childhood. For besides
their weighty and seasonable counsels and exemplary conversations,
they furnished me with means to go to the other meetings of Friends
in that country, when the meeting was not in their own house. And
indeed, the time I stayed with them was so well spent, that it not
only yielded great satisfaction to my mind but turned in good
measure to my spiritual advantage in the truth.

But that I might not, on the one hand, bear too hard upon my
friends, nor on the other hand forget the house of thraldom, after I
had staid with them some six or seven weeks (from the time called
Easter to the time called Whitsuntide) I took my leave of them to
depart home, intending to walk to Wycombe in one day, and from
thence home in another.

That day that I came home I did not see my father, nor until noon
the next day, when I went into the parlour, where he was, to take my
usual place at dinner.

As soon as I came in I observed by my father's countenance that my
hat was still an offence to him; but when I was sat down, and before
I had eaten anything, he made me understand it more fully by saying
to me, but in a milder tone than he had formerly used to speak to me
in, "If you cannot content yourself to come to dinner without your
hive on your head (so he called my hat), pray rise, and go take your
dinner somewhere else."

Upon these words I arose from the table, and leaving the room went
into the kitchen, where I stayed till the servants went to dinner,
and then sat down very contentedly with them. Yet I suppose my