hich
they hardly knew the meaning, so cloistered had been the life they
lived. The kind, conscientious hands that had fed them would now seem
hard and unrelenting; the place that had been home would turn to a
prison; the life that Elder Gray preached, "the life of a purer
godliness than can be attained by marriage," had seemed difficult,
perhaps, but possible; and now how cold and hopeless it would appear to
these two young, undisciplined, flaming hearts!

"Hetty dear, talk to me!" whispered Susanna, softly touching her
shoulder, and wondering if she could somehow find a way to counsel the
girl in her perplexity.

Hetty started rebelliously to her feet as Nathan moved away farther
into the orchard. "If you say a single thing to me, or a word about me
to Eldress Abby, I'll run away this very day. Nobody has any right to
speak to me, and I just want to be let alone! It's all very well for
you," she went on passionately. "What have you had to give up? Nothing
but a husband you didn't love and a home you didn't want to stay in.
Like as not you'll be a Shaker, and they'll take you for a saint; but
anyway you'll have had your life."

"You are right, Hetty," said Susanna, quietly; "but oh! my dear, the
world outside isn't such a Paradise for young girls like you, motherless
and fatherless and penniless. You have a good home here; can't you learn
to like it?"

"Out in the world people can do as they like and nobody thinks of
calling them wicked!" sobbed Hetty, flinging herself down, and putting
her head in Susanna's aproned lap. "Here you've got to live like an
angel, and if you don't, you've got to confess every wrong thought
you've had, when the time comes."

"Whatever you do, Hetty, be open and aboveboard; don't be hasty and
foolish, or you may be sorry forever afterwards."

Hetty's mood changed again suddenly to one of mutiny, and she rose to
her feet.

"You haven't got any right to interfere with me anyway, Susanna; and if
you think it's your duty to tell tales, you'll only make matters worse";
and so saying she took her basket and fled across the fields like a
hunted hare.

That evening, as Hetty left the infirmary, where she had been sent with
a bottle of liniment for the nursing Sisters, she came upon Nathan
standing gloomily under the spruce trees near the back of the building.
It was eight o'clock and quite dark. It had been raining during the late
afternoon and the trees were still dripping drearily. Hetty