go up and help you undress now," she said; "it's seven o'clock,
and I must go to the family meeting."

VI

SUSANNA SPEAKS IN MEETING

[Illustration]

It was the Sabbath day and the Believers were gathered in the
meeting-house, Brethren and Sisters seated quietly on their separate
benches, with the children by themselves in their own place. As the men
entered the room they removed their hats and coats and hung them upon
wooden pegs that lined the sides of the room, while the women took off
their bonnets; then, after standing for a moment of perfect silence,
they seated themselves.

In Susanna's time the Sunday costume for the men included trousers of
deep blue cloth with a white line and a vest of darker blue, exposing a
full-bosomed shirt that had a wide turned-down collar fastened with
three buttons. The Sisters were in pure white dresses, with neck and
shoulders covered with snowy kerchiefs, their heads crowned with their
white net caps, and a large white pocket handkerchief hung over the left
arm. Their feet were shod with curious pointed-toed cloth shoes of
ultramarine blue--a fashion long since gone by.

Susanna had now become accustomed to the curious solemn march or dance
in which of course none but the Believers ever joined, and found in her
present exalted mood the songs and the exhortations strangely
interesting and not unprofitable.

Tabitha, the most aged of the group of Albion Sisters, confessed that
she missed the old times when visions were common, when the Spirit
manifested itself in extraordinary ways, and the gift of tongues
descended. Sometimes, in the Western Settlement where she was gathered
in, the whole North Family would march into the highway in the fresh
morning hours, and while singing some sacred hymn, would pass on to the
Centre Family, and together in solemn yet glad procession they would
mount the hillside to "Jehovah's Chosen Square," there to sing and dance
before the Lord.

"I wish we could do something like that now!" sighed Hetty Arnold, a
pretty young creature, who had moments of longing for the pomps and
vanities. "If we have to give up all worldly pleasures, I think we might
have more religious ones!"

"We were a younger church in those old times of which Sister Tabitha
speaks," said Eldress Abby. "You must remember, Hetty, that we were
children in faith, and needed signs and manifestations, pictures and
object-lessons. We've been trained to think and reason no