one of them exclaimed, when they came to their clothes and had
broken the line,--"My! ain't _she_ nice!"

Then all the other girls stood and stared at Beth, whose fine limbs
and satin-smooth white skin, so different in colour and texture from
their own, drew from them the most candid expressions of admiration.

Beth, covered with confusion, hurried on a garment all wet as she was,
for she had no towel; and then, in order to distract their attention
from her body, she began to display her mind.

"Eh, I have had a good time!" one of the girls exclaimed. "Let's come
again often."

"Let us form a secret society," said Beth, "and I will be your leader,
and we'll have a watchword and a sign; and when the water is right,
I'll send the word round, and then we'll start out unobserved, and
meet here, and bathe in secret."

"My! that would be fine!" the girls agreed.

"But that's not all," said Beth, standing with her chemise only half
on, oblivious of everything now but her subject. "It would be much
better than that. There would be much more in it. We could meet in the
fields by moonlight, and I would drill you, and show you a great many
things, all for the Secret Service of Humanity. You don't know what
we're doing! We're going to make the world just like heaven, and
everybody will be good and beautiful, and have enough of everything,
and we shall all be happy, because nobody will care to be happy unless
everybody else has been made so. But it will be very hard work to
bring it about. The wicked people are doing all they can to prevent
us, and the devil himself is fighting against us. We shall conquer,
however; and those who are first in the fight will be first for the
glory!"

The girls, some standing, some sitting, most of them with nothing on,
remained motionless while she spoke, not understanding much, yet so
moved by the power of her personality, that when she exclaimed, "Well,
what do you say, girls? will you join?" they all exclaimed with
enthusiasm, "We will! we will!"

And then they made haste to dress as if the millennium could be
hurried here by the rate at which they put on their clothes. Beth then
and there composed a terrible oath, binding them to secrecy and
obedience, and swore them all in solemnly; then she chose one for her
orderly, who was to take round the word on occasion; and they were all
to meet again in the fields behind the church on Saturday at eight
o'clock.

But in the meantime, not a w