[Ill.u.s.tration: HETTY LOOKING AT THE LAD WITH ALL HER HEART IN HER EYES]
Susanna worked on in silent anxiety. The likelihood of such crises as this had sometimes crossed her mind, and knowing how frail human nature is, she often marveled that instances seemed so infrequent. Her instinct told her that in every Community the risk must exist, even though all were doubly warned and armed against the temptations that flesh is heir to; yet no hint of danger had showed itself during the months in which she had been a member of the Shaker family. She had heard the Elder"s plea to the young converts to take up "a full cross against the flesh"; she had listened to Eldress Abby when she told them that the natural life, its thoughts, pa.s.sions, feelings, and a.s.sociations, must be turned against once and forever; but her heart melted in pity for the two poor young things struggling helplessly against instincts of which they hardly knew the meaning, so cloistered had been the life they lived. The kind, conscientious hands that had fed them would now seem hard and unrelenting; the place that had been home would turn to a prison; the life that Elder Gray preached, "the life of a purer G.o.dliness than can be attained by marriage," had seemed difficult, perhaps, but possible; and now how cold and hopeless it would appear to these two young, undisciplined, flaming hearts!
"Hetty dear, talk to me!" whispered Susanna, softly touching her shoulder, and wondering if she could somehow find a way to counsel the girl in her perplexity.
Hetty started rebelliously to her feet as Nathan moved away farther into the orchard. "If you say a single thing to me, or a word about me to Eldress Abby, I"ll run away this very day. n.o.body has any right to speak to me, and I just want to be let alone! It"s all very well for you," she went on pa.s.sionately. "What have you had to give up? Nothing but a husband you didn"t love and a home you didn"t want to stay in.
Like as not you"ll be a Shaker, and they"ll take you for a saint; but anyway you"ll have had your life."
"You are right, Hetty," said Susanna, quietly; "but oh! my dear, the world outside isn"t such a Paradise for young girls like you, motherless and fatherless and penniless. You have a good home here; can"t you learn to like it?"
"Out in the world people can do as they like and n.o.body thinks of calling them wicked!" sobbed Hetty, flinging herself down, and putting her head in Susanna"s ap.r.o.ned lap. "Here you"ve got to live like an angel, and if you don"t, you"ve got to confess every wrong thought you"ve had, when the time comes."
"Whatever you do, Hetty, be open and aboveboard; don"t be hasty and foolish, or you may be sorry forever afterwards."
Hetty"s mood changed again suddenly to one of mutiny, and she rose to her feet.
"You haven"t got any right to interfere with me anyway, Susanna; and if you think it"s your duty to tell tales, you"ll only make matters worse"; and so saying she took her basket and fled across the fields like a hunted hare.
That evening, as Hetty left the infirmary, where she had been sent with a bottle of liniment for the nursing Sisters, she came upon Nathan standing gloomily under the spruce trees near the back of the building.
It was eight o"clock and quite dark. It had been raining during the late afternoon and the trees were still dripping drearily. Hetty came upon Nathan so suddenly, that, although he had been in her thoughts, she gave a frightened little cry when he drew her peremptorily under the shadow of the branches. The rules that govern the Shaker Community are very strict, but in reality the true Believer never thinks of them as rules, nor is trammeled by them. They are fixed habits of the blood, as common, as natural, as sitting or standing, eating or drinking. No Brother is allowed to hold any lengthy interview with a Sister, nor to work, walk, or drive with her alone; but these protective customs, which all are bound in honor to keep, are too much a matter of every-day life to be strange or irksome.
"I must speak to you, Hetty," whispered Nathan. "I cannot bear it any longer alone. What shall we do?"
"Do?" echoed Hetty, trembling.
"Yes, _do_." There was no pretense of asking her if she loved or suffered, or lived in torture and suspense. They had not uttered a word to each other, but their eyes had "shed meanings."
"You know we can"t go on like this," he continued rapidly. "We can"t eat their food, stay alongside of them, pray their prayers and act a lie all the time,--we _can"t_!"
"Nay, we can"t!" said Hetty. "Oh, Nathan, shall we confess all and see if they will help us to resist temptation? I know that"s what Susanna would want me to do, but oh! I should dread it."
"Nay, it is too late," Nathan answered drearily. "They could not help us, and we should be held under suspicion forever after."
"I feel so wicked and miserable and unfaithful, I don"t know what to do!" sobbed Hetty.
"Yee, so do I!" the lad answered. "And I feel bitter against my father, too. He brought me here to get rid of me, because he didn"t dare leave me on somebody"s doorstep. He ought to have come back when I was grown a man and asked me if I felt inclined to be a Shaker, and if I was good enough to be one!"
"And my stepfather wouldn"t have me in the house, so my mother had to give me away; but they"re both dead, and I"m alone in the world, though I"ve never felt it, because the Sisters are so kind. Now they will hate me--though they don"t hate anybody."
"You"ve got me, Hetty! We must go away and be married. We"d better go to-night to the minister in Albion."
"What if he wouldn"t do it?"
"Why shouldn"t he? Shakers take no vows, though I feel bound, hand and foot, out of grat.i.tude. If any other two young folks went to him, he would marry them; and if he refuses, there are two other ministers in Albion, besides two more in Buryfield, five miles farther. If they won"t marry us to-night, I"ll leave you in some safe home and we"ll walk to Portland to-morrow. I"m young and strong, and I know I can earn our living somehow."
"But we haven"t the price of a lodging or a breakfast between us," Hetty said tearfully. "Would it be sinful to take some of my basket-work and send back the money next week?"
"Yee, it would be so," Nathan answered sternly. "The least we can do is to go away as empty-handed as we came. I can work for our breakfast."
"Oh, I can"t bear to disappoint Eldress Abby," cried Hetty, breaking anew into tears. "She"ll say we"ve run away to live on the lower plane after agreeing to crucify Nature and follow the angelic life!"
"I know; but there are five hundred people in Albion all living in marriage, and we shan"t be the only sinners!" Nathan argued. "Oh, Sister Hetty, dear Hetty, keep up your spirits and trust to me!"
Nathan"s hand stole out and met Hetty"s in its warm clasp, the first hand touch that the two ignorant young creatures had ever felt. Nathan"s knowledge of life had been a journey to the Canterbury Shakers in New Hampshire with Brother Issachar; Hetty"s was limited to a few drives into Albion village, and half a dozen chats with the world"s people who came to the Settlement to buy basket-work.
"I am not able to bear the Shaker life!" sighed Nathan. "Elder Gray allows there be such!"
"Nor I," murmured Hetty. "Eldress Harriet knows I am no saint!"
Hetty"s head was now on Nathan"s shoulder. The stiff Shaker cap had resisted bravely, but the girl"s head had yielded to the sweet proximity. Youth called to youth triumphantly; the Spirit was unheard, and all the theories of celibacy and the angelic life that had been poured into their ears vanished into thin air. The thick shade of the spruce tree hid the kiss that would have been so innocent, had they not given themselves to the Virgin Church; the drip, drip, drip of the branches on their young heads pa.s.sed unheeded.
Then, one following the other silently along the highroad, hurrying along in the shadows of the tall trees, stealing into the edge of the woods, or hiding behind a thicket of alders at the fancied sound of a footstep or the distant rumble of a wagon, Nathan and Hetty forsook the faith of Mother Ann and went out into the world as Adam and Eve left the garden, with the knowledge of good and evil implanted in their hearts.
The voice of Eldress Abby pursued Hetty in her flight like the voice in a dream. She could hear its clear impa.s.sioned accents, saying, "The children of this world marry; but the children of the resurrection do not marry, for they are as the angels." The solemn tones grew fainter and fainter as Hetty"s steps led her farther and farther away from the quiet Shaker village and its drab-clad Sisters, and at last they almost died into silence, because Nathan"s voice was nearer and Nathan"s voice was dearer.
VIII
CONCERNING BACKSLIDERS
[Ill.u.s.tration]
There was no work in the herb-garden now, but there was never a moment from dawn till long after dusk when the busy fingers of the Shaker Sisters were still. When all else failed there was the knitting: socks for the Brothers and stockings for the Sisters and socks and stockings of every size for the children. One of the quaint sights of the Settlement to Susanna was the clump of young Sisters on the porch of the girls" building, knitting, knitting, in the afternoon sun. Even little Shaker Jane and Mary, Maria and Lucinda, had their socks in hand, and plied their short knitting-needles soberly and not unskillfully. The sight of their industry incited the impetuous Sue to effort, and under the patient tutelage of Sister Martha she mastered the gentle art.
Susanna never forgot the hour when, coming from her work in the seed-room, she crossed the gra.s.s with a message to Martha, and saw the group of children and girls on the western porch, a place that caught every ray of afternoon sun, the last glint of twilight, and the first hint of sunset glow. Sister Martha had been reading the Sabbath-school lesson for the next day, and as Susanna neared the building, Martha"s voice broke into a hymn. Falteringly the girls" voices followed the lead, uncertain at first of words or tune, but gaining courage and strength as they went on:--
"As the waves of the mighty ocean Gospel love we will circulate, And as we give, in due proportion, We of the heavenly life partake.
Heavenly Life, Glorious Life, Resurrecting, Soul-Inspiring, Re-gen-er-a-ting Gospel Life, It leadeth away from all sin and strife!"
The clear, innocent treble sounded sweetly in the virgin stillness and solitude of the Settlement, and as Susanna drew closer she stopped under a tree to catch the picture--Sister Martha, grave, tall, discreet, singing with all her soul and marking time with her hands, so accustomed to the upward and downward movement of the daily service. The straight, plain dresses were as fresh and smooth as perfect washing could make them, and the round childlike faces looked quaint and sweet with the cropped hair tucked under the stiff little caps. Sue was seated with Mary and Jane on the steps, and Susanna saw with astonishment that her needles were moving to and fro and she was knitting as serenely and correctly as a mother in Israel; singing, too, in a delicate little treble that was like a skylark"s morning note. Susanna could hear her distinctly as she delightedly flung out the long words so dear to her soul and so difficult to dull little Jane and Mary:--
"Res-ur-rect-ing, Soul-In-spir-ing, Re-gen-er-a-ting Gospel Life, It lead-eth a-way from all sin and strife."
Jane"s cap was slightly unsettled, causing its wearer to stop knitting now and then and pull it forward or push it back; and in one of these little feminine difficulties Susanna saw Sue reach forward and deftly transfer the cap to her own head. Jane was horrified, but rather slow to wrath and equally slow in ingenuity. Sue looked a delicious Shaker with her delicate face, her lovely eyes, and her yellow hair grown into soft rings; and quite intoxicated with her cap, her knitting, and the general air of holiness so unexpectedly emanating from her, she moved her little hands up and down, as the tune rose and fell, in a way that would have filled Eldress Abby with joy. Susanna"s heart beat fast, and she wondered for a moment, as she went back to her room, whether she could ever give Sue a worldly childhood more free from danger than the life she was now living. She found letters from Aunt Louisa and Jack on reaching her room, and they lay in her lap under a pile of towels, to be read and reread while her busy needle flew over the coa.r.s.e crash. Sue stole in quietly, kissed her mother"s cheek, and sat down on her stool by the window, marveling, with every "under" of the needle and "over" of the yarn, that it was she, Sue Hathaway, who was making a real stocking.
Jack"s pen was not that of an especially ready writer, but he had a practical way of conveying considerable news. His present contributions, when freed from their phonetic errors and spelled in Christian fashion, read somewhat as follows:--
Father says I must write to you every week, even if I make him do without, so I will. I am well, and so is Aunt Louisa, and any boy that lives with her has to toe the mark, I tell you; but she is good and has fine things to eat every meal. What did Sue get for her birthday? I got a book from father and one from Aunt Louisa and the one from you that you told her to buy. It is queer that people will give a boy books when he has only one knife, and that a broken one. There"s a book prize to be given at the school, and I am pretty afraid I will get that, too; it would be just my luck.
Teachers think about nothing but books and what good they do, but I heard of a boy that had a grand knife with five sharp blades and a corkscrew, and in a shipwreck he cut all the ropes, so the sail came down that was carrying them on to the rocks, and then by boring a hole with his corkscrew all the water leaked out of the ship that had been threatening to sink the sailors. I could use a little pocket money, as Aunt Louisa keeps me short.... I have been spending Sunday with father, and had a pretty good time, not so very. Father will take me about more when he stops going to the store, which will be next week for good. The kitchen floor is new painted, and Ellen says it sticks, and Aunt Louisa is going to make Ellen clean house in case you come home. Do you like where you are?
Our teacher told the girls" teacher it seemed a long stay for any one who had a family, and the boys at school call me a half orphan and say my mother has left me and so my father has to board me in the country. My money is run out again. I sat down in a puddle this afternoon, but it dried up pretty quick and didn"t hurt my clothes, so no more from your son
JACK.
This was the sort of message that had been coming to Susanna of late, bringing up little pictures of home duties and responsibilities, homely tasks and trials. "John giving up the store for good"; what did that mean? Had he gone from bad to worse in the solitude that she had hoped might show him the gravity of his offenses, the error of his ways? In case she should die, what then would become of the children? Would Louisa accept the burden of Jack, for whom she had never cared? Would the Shakers take Sue? She would be safe; perhaps she would always be happy; but brother and sister would be divided and brought up as strangers. Would little Sue, grown to big Sue, say some time or other, "My mother renounced the world for herself, but what right had she to renounce it for me? Why did she rob me of the dreams of girlhood and the natural hopes of women, when I was too young to give consent?" These and other unanswerable questions continually drifted through Susanna"s mind, disturbing its balance and leaving her like a shuttlec.o.c.k bandied to and fro between conflicting blows.
"Mardie," came a soft little voice from across the room; "Mardie, what is a backslider?"
"Where did you hear that long word, Sue?" asked Susanna, rousing herself from her dream.