One of the most natural consultations of the newly married couple is the
plan of their first house. How chatty and cheery a pair of newly mated
birds appear, in counsel over their nest-building! This schoolmaster and
mistress are home from their toil and care for the day, and are again
devoting an evening to the scheme of their first dwelling. It is not a
large or magnificent concern, but it has already been neatly draughted,
carefully considered, and builders' estimates footed up. All seems to be
about right; but Elizabeth has gone off into a brown study. Her countenance
betrays unusual agitation, and her pensive eye is filled with tears. Her
husband supposes she is thinking of the mansion from which she has been
spurned, as contrasted with the humble dwelling they are planning, but she
hastens to correct the mistake and assure him that her musings were in the
opposite direction entirely. "I was thinking of our dear people, and how
much they need in this suburb of the town some place to hold meetings in.
And this thought struck my mind almost like an inspiration: Why not extend
our plan up high enough for an 'upper room' for meetings?" This notion,
carefully considered, not only in these consultations but in the prayers
that closed them, impressed them both as a divine suggestion. The house was
built accordingly. An outside staircase gave access to the upper story,
which was all finished off in a rough, cheap manner for a chapel, and
immediately and for a few years was occupied by the Methodist people of the
south part of Middletown and of the farms adjoining, for prayer meetings,
class meetings, and occasional exhortation and preaching.

Among the church privileges which had cost this disinherited daughter so
dearly few ever equaled in sweet enjoyment this cottage chapel arrangement.
She no longer had to steal away and snatch a few minutes once or twice a
month to associate with the advocates of free grace, as she once did, nor
be shut entirely away from their beloved society, as for nearly a year, in