a child of theirs identify herself with this despised sect was one of
those crosses which they could not and would not bear. But Fanny had in
a fit of girlish frolic entered one of the meetings of these low-caste
Christians. What she heard changed the current of her life. She knew
thenceforth that God was no respecter of persons, and that the crucified
Nazarene looked not upon the splendor of ceremonies but upon the
thoughts of the heart of His disciples. Here in a barn, amid vulgar
folk, and uncouth, dim surroundings, He had appeared, He, her Lord and
Master. He had touched her with that white unspeakable appeal. The
laughter died upon the fair girlish face and prayer issued from the
beautiful lips. If vulgar folk, the despised Baptists, were good enough
for the Christ, were they not good enough for her? Among them she had
felt His consecrating touch and among them she determined to devote
herself to Him. Her parents commanded and threatened but Fanny Lloyd was
bent on obeying the heavenly voice of duty rather than father and
mother. They had threatened that if she allowed herself to be baptised
they would turn her out of doors. Fanny was baptised and her parents
made good the threat. Their home was no longer her home. She had the
courage of her conviction--ability to suffer for a belief.

Such was the woman who subsequently became the wife of Abijah Garrison,
and the mother of one of the greatest moral heroes of the century.
Abijah followed the sea, and she for several years with an increasing
family followed Abijah. First from one place and then another she glided
after him in her early married life. He loved her and his little ones
but the love of travel and change was strong within him. He was ever
restless and changeful. During one of his roving fits he emigrated with
his family from Nova Scotia to the United States. It was in the spring
of 1805 that he and they landed in Newburyport. The following December
his wife presented him with a boy, whom they called William Lloyd