gratitude for what
you have all done for me. Many a time it will come back to me and keep
me from faltering."

She looked back at him from the open doorway, timidly.

"Don't forget us, Sue and me, altogether," she said, her eyes filling
with tears. "Come to Farnham, if you will, and see if I am a credit to
Shaker teaching! I shall never be here again, perhaps, and somehow it
seems to me as if you, Elder Gray, with your education and your gifts,
ought to be leading a larger life than this."

"I've hunted in the wild Maine forests, in my young days; I've speared
salmon in her rivers and shot rapids ill a birchbark canoe," said the
Elder, looking up from the pine table that served as a desk. "I've been
before the mast and seen strange countries; I've fought Indians; I've
faced perils on land and sea; but this Shaker life is the greatest
adventure of all!"

"Adventure?" echoed Susanna, uncomprehendingly.

"Adventure!" repeated the Elder, smiling at his own thoughts. "Whether I
fail, or whether I succeed, it's a splendid adventure in ethics."

Abby and Daniel looked at each other when Susanna passed out of the
office door.

"'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been
of us, they would have continued with us,'" he quoted quietly.

Abby wiped her eyes with her apron. "It's a hard road to travel
sometimes, Daniel!" she said.

"Yee; but think where it leads, Abby, think where it leads! You're not
going to complain of dust when you're treading the King's Highway!"

Susanna left the office with a drooping head, knowing the sadness that
she had left behind. Brother Ansel sat under the trees near by, and his
shrewd eye perceived the drift of coming events.

"Well, Susanna," he drawled, "you're goin' to leave us, like most o' the
other 'jiners.' I can see that with one eye shut."

"Yes," she replied with a half smile; "but you see, Ansel, I 'jined'
John Hathaway before I knew anything about Shaker doctrines."

"Yee; but what's to prevent your onjinin' him? They used to tie up
married folks in the old times so't they could n't move an inch. When
they read the constitution and bylaws over 'em they used to put in 'till
death do us part.' That's the way my father was hitched to his three
wives, but death _did_ 'em part--fortunately for him!"

"'Till death us do part' is still in the marriage service," Susanna
said, "and I think of it very often."

"I want to know if that's there yit!" excla