o 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
did n'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 shuttlecock 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.

"'T is n't so long as 'regenerating' and more easier."

"Regenerating means 'making over,' you know."

"There'd ought to be children's words and grownup words,--that's what I
think," said Sue, decisively; "but what does 'backslider' mean?"

"A backslider is one who has been climbing up a hill and suddenly begins
to slip back."

"Does n't his feet take hold right, or why does he slip?"

"Perhaps he can't manage his feet;--perhaps they just won't climb." 295

"Yes, or p'raps he just does n't want to climb any more; but it must be
frightensome, sliding backwards."

"I suppose it is."

"Is it wic