r Elder Gray; feet of people who have
always tried to do right."

"Are Brother Ansel's feet saintly?"

"He's a good, kind, hardworking man."

"Is good, kind, hardworking, same as saintly?"

"Well, it's not so very different, perhaps. Now, Sue, I've asked you
before, don't let your mind grope, and your little tongue wag, every
instant; it is n't good for you, and it certainly is n't good for me!"

"All right; but 'less I gropeanwag sometimes, I don't see how I'll ever
learn the things I 'specially want to know?" sighed Sue the insatiable.

"Shall I tell you a Shaker story, one that Eldress Abby told me last
evening?"

"Oh, do, Mardie!" cried Sue, crossing her feet, folding her hands, and
looking up into her mother's face expectantly.

"Once there was a very good Shaker named Elder Calvin Green, and some
one wrote him a letter asking him to come a long distance and found
a Settlement in the western part of New York State. He and some other
Elders and Eldresses traveled five days, and stopped at the house of
a certain Joseph Pelham to spend Sunday and hold a meeting. On
Monday morning, very tired, and wondering where to stay and begin his
preaching, the Elder went out into the woods to pray for guidance. When
he rose from his knees, feeling stronger and lighter-hearted, a young
quail came up to him so close that he picked it up. It was not a bit
afraid, neither did the old parent birds who were standing near by
show any sign of fear, though they are very timid creatures. The Elder
smoothed the young bird's feathers a little while and then let it go,
but he thought an angel seemed to say to him, 'The quail is a sign; you
will know before night what it means, and before tomorrow people will be
coming to you to learn the way to God.'

"Soon after, a flock of these shy little birds alighted on Joseph
Pelham's house, and the Elders were glad, and thought it signified the
flock of Believers that would gather in that place; for the Shakers see
more in signs than other people. Just at night a young girl of twelve
or thirteen knocked at the door and told Elder Calvin that she wanted to
become a Shaker, and that her father and mother were willing.

"'Here is the little quail!' cried the Elder, and indeed she was the
first who flocked to the meetings and joined the new Community.

"On their return to their old home across the state the Elders took
the little quail girl with them. It was November then, and the canals
thro