The village schoolmaster taught for very low wages, and was not remarkably well-qualified for his task; as was generally the case at that early period.  Isaac’s labor was needed on the farm all the summer; consequently, he was able to attend school only three months during the winter.  He was, therefore, so little acquainted with the forms of letter-writing, that he put Sarah’s name inside the letter, and his own on the outside.  She, being an only daughter, and a great pet in her family, had better opportunities for education.  She told her young lover that was not the correct way to write a letter, and instructed him how to proceed in future.  From that time, they corresponded constantly.

Isaac likewise formed a very strong friendship with his cousin Joseph Whitall, who was his schoolmate, and about his own age.  They shared together all their joys and troubles, and were companions in all boyish enterprises.  Thus was a happy though laborious childhood passed in the seclusion of the woods, in the midst of home influences and rustic occupations.  His parents had no leisure to bestow on intellectual culture; for they had a numerous family of children, and it required about all their time to feed and clothe them respectably.  But they were worthy, kind-hearted people, whose moral precepts were sustained by their upright example.  His father was a quiet man, but exceedingly firm and energetic.  When he had made up his mind to do a thing, no earthly power could turn him from his purpose; especially if any question of conscience were involved therein.  During the revolutionary war, he faithfully maintained his testimony against the shedding of blood, and suffered considerably for refusing to pay military taxes.  Isaac’s mother was noted for her fearless character, and blunt directness of speech.  She was educated in the Presbyterian faith, and this was a source of some discordant feeling between her and her husband.  The preaching of her favorite ministers seemed to him harsh and rigid, while she regarded Quaker exhortations as insipid and formal.  But as time passed on, her religious views assimilated more and more with his; and about twenty-four years after their marriage, she joined the Society of Friends, and frequently spoke at their meetings.  She was a spiritual minded woman, always ready to sympathise with the afflicted, and peculiarly kind to animals.  They were both extremely hospitable and benevolent to the poor.  On Sunday evenings, they convened all the family to listen to the Scriptures and other religious books.—­In his journal Isaac alludes to this custom, and says:  “My mind was often solemnized by these opportunities, and I resolved to live more consistently with the principles of christian sobriety.”