it does to-day, and Daniel refused to let the Society come between him and the woman of his choice, but Lucy had many misgivings.  Thanks to her father’s ideas she had been brought up in a most liberal manner, allowed to attend parties, dance and wear pretty clothes to her heart’s content, and it was a serious question with her whether she could give up all these and adopt the plain and severe habits of the Quakers.  She had a marvelous voice, and, as she sang over her spinning-wheel, often wished that she might “go into a ten-acre lot with the bars down” so that she could let her voice out to its full capacity.  The Quakers did not approve of singing, and that pleasure also would have to be relinquished.  That the husband could give up his religious forms and accept those of the wife never had been imagined.

Love finally triumphed, and the young couple were married July 13, 1817.  A few nights before the wedding Lucy went to a party and danced till four o’clock in the morning, while Friend Daniel sat bolt upright against the wall and counted the days which should usher in a new dispensation.  A committee was sent at once to deal with Daniel, and Lucy always declared he told them he “was sorry he married her,” but he would say, “No, my dear, I said I was sorry that in order to marry the woman I loved best, I had to violate a rule of the religious society I revered most.”  The matter was carefully talked over by the elders, and as he had said he was sorry he had to violate the rule, and as the family was one of much influence, and as he was their most highly educated and cultivated member, it was unanimously decided not to turn him out of meeting.[2] Lucy learned to love the Friends’ religion and often said she was a much more consistent Quaker than her husband, but she never became a member of the Society, declaring she was “not good enough.”  She did not use the “plain language,” though she always insisted that her husband should do so in addressing her; nor did she adopt the Quaker costume, but she dressed simply and wore little “cottage” straw bonnets with strings tied demurely under her chin and later had them made of handsome shirred silk, the full white cap-ruche showing inside.  She sang no more except lullabies to the babies when they came, and then the Quaker relatives would laugh and ask her why she did it.  Her long married life was very happy, notwithstanding its many hardships, and she never regretted accepting her Quaker lover.

The previous summer Daniel had helped his father prepare the lumber and build a large two-story addition to his house, and in return he gave to his son the lumber for a new home, on a beautiful tract of ground presented to the young couple by Father Read adjoining his own.  While this was being built they lived at the Read homestead, and the loom was kept busy preparing the housekeeping outfit.  In those days this was made of linen, bleached and spun and woven by the women of the household.  Cotton was just coming into use, and Lucy Anthony was considered very fortunate because she could have a few sheets and pillow-cases which were half cotton.