Poor Lydy! poor Lydy!" he said. "Oh, yee, _I_ know the world.
I know it, my boy! Do you?"
"Why, after a fashion," Lewis said; and then he asked, suddenly, "Why did
you turn Shaker, Nathan?"
"Well, I got hold of a Shaker book that set me thinking.
Sister Lydia gave it to me. I met Sister Lydia when she
had come down to the place I lived to sell baskets.
And she was interested in my salvation, and gave me the book.
Then I got to figuring out the Prophecies, and I saw Shakerism
fulfilled them; and then I began to see that when you don't
own anything yourself you can't worry about your property;
well, that clinched me, I guess. Poor Sister Lydia, she didn't
abide in grace herself," he ended, sadly.
"I should have thought you would have been sorry then,
that you--" Lewis began, but checked himself. "How about"--
he said, and stopped to clear his voice, which broke huskily;--
"how about love between man and woman? Husband and wife?"
"Marriage is honorable," Brother Nathan conceded; "Shakers don't
despise marriage. But they like to see folks grow out of it
into something better, like--like your wife, maybe."
"Well, your doctrine would put an end to the world,"
Lewis said, smiling.
"I guess," said Brother Nathan, dryly, "there ain't any immediate
danger of the world coming to an end."
"I'd like to see that book," Lewis said, when they parted
at the pasture-bars where a foot-path led down the hill
to his own house.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51