ly. "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 did n'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 would n'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
tonight to the minister in Albion."

"What if he would n't do it?"

"Why should n't he? Shakers take no vows, though I feel bound, hand and
foot, out of gratitude. 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 tonight, I'll leave you in some safe home and we 'll walk
to Portland tomorrow. I'm young and strong, and I know I can earn our
living somehow."

"But we have n't the price of a lodging or a breakfast between us,"
Hetty said tearfully. "Would it be sinful to take some of my basketwork
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 fi