When they arrived at Mr. Hite’s they were celebrating his daughter’s wedding and the festivities were to continue for several days. He refused to exhibit or sell his horses until the festivities ended. They were quartered with the men in the big red barn, where they slept comfortably on the hay wrapped in homespun blankets. Mr. Clark succeeded in stealing the bride’s slipper, which the groomsmen were supposed to guard; and if stolen they were forced to redeem before she could dance. One of them was permitted to redeem it with a bottle of wine, after Mr. Clark had extorted the promise of a kiss from the bride and the privilege of replacing the slipper, which doings, being a Dissenter deacon, he failed to mention to either his wife or his father-in-law. When the marriage celebration finally ended and the other guests had departed old man Hite expressed a readiness to transact business. They purchased four horses from him; and then rode to Winchester. It was St. Patrick’s day, and as they rode down the single business street they met a procession of Dutchmen carrying crude effigies of St. Patrick and his wife Sheeley. She wore a necklace of potatoes and carried a peck or more in the folds of her check apron. As the procession marched by the mouth of an alley, it was set upon by a half dozen husky Irishmen, who after a fierce struggle rescued the Saint and his lady. Home again, they found Rev. Donald McDonald in conference with the other three Presbyterian preachers of the Valley churches. Under the Act of Toleration, all Dissenter ministers were required to apply in person to the Council at Williamsburg, the capital, for license to preach and for permits to establish churches. This law, the Presbyterian preachers had found they could now disregard and had been doing so for some time; enjoying greater religious freedom than the Act in letter permitted; or than was enjoyed by any other of the Dissenter denominations. The Baptists petitioned the House of Burgesses that they might be given “the same indulgences as the Presbyterians.” This caused the Presbyterians to fear that their privileges might be curtailed; and learning that a bill was in preparation affecting “His Majesty’s Protestant Subjects in The Colony,” the Valley ministers met at Donald McDonald’s and after a lengthy conference and long prayers decided that he should go to Williamsburg as their representative; carrying petitions from the Valley churches protesting against the proposed law. In his absence it was arranged that the schoolmaster, who was also a ruling elder, should fill the pulpit of the Jackson River Meeting House. It was on this first Sunday that he delivered a sermon on “Civil and Religious Liberty,” taking as his text Acts 5:38, 39; which was said to have roused the Valley settlements to active open opposition against the Mother Country.