"Should I pay myself?" he asked.
"You own everything in common, don't you?" Lewis said.
"Yee," said the Shaker; "we're all brothers and sisters.
Nobody tries to get ahead of anybody else."
"And you don't believe in marriage?" Athalia asserted.
"We are as the angels of God," he said, simply.
He left them and began to sickle his herbs, with the cheerfully
obvious purpose of escaping further interruption.
Athalia instantly bubbled over with questions, but Lewis could
tell her hardly more of the Shakers than she knew already.
"No, it isn't free love," he said; "they're decent enough.
They believe in general love, not particular, I suppose. . . . 'Thalia,
do you think it's worth while to wait over a train just to
see the settlement?"
"Of course it is! He said they were happy; I would like to see
what kind of life makes people happy."
He looked at the lighted end of his cigar and smiled,
but he said nothing. Afterward, as they followed the cart across
the field and out into the road, Athalia asked the old herb-gatherer
many questions about the happiness of the community life,
which he answered patiently enough. Once or twice he tried
to draw into their talk the silent husband who walked at her side,
but Lewis had nothing to say. Only when some reference was made
to one of the Prophecies did he look up in sudden interest.
"You take that to mean the Judgment, do you?" he said.
And for the rest of the walk to the settlement the two men discussed
the point, the Shaker walking with one hand on the heavy shaft,
for the support it gave him, and Lewis keeping step with him.
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