feelings, and not so much a distinct remembrance as connected with
their whole volume of remembrances. But just as they reached a proper
age for their union misfortunes had fallen heavily on both and made it
necessary that they should resort to personal labor for a bare
subsistence. Even under these circumstances Martha Pierson would
probably have consented to unite her fate with Adam Colburn's, and,
secure of the bliss of mutual love, would patiently have awaited the
less important gifts of Fortune. But Adam, being of a calm and
cautious character, was loth to relinquish the advantages which a
single man possesses for raising himself in the world. Year after
year, therefore, their marriage had been deferred.

Adam Colburn had followed many vocations, had travelled far and seen
much of the world and of life. Martha had earned her bread sometimes
as a sempstress, sometimes as help to a farmer's wife, sometimes as
schoolmistress of the village children, sometimes as a nurse or
watcher of the sick, thus acquiring a varied experience the ultimate
use of which she little anticipated. But nothing had gone prosperously
with either of the lovers; at no subsequent moment would matrimony
have been so prudent a measure as when they had first parted, in the
opening bloom of life, to seek a better fortune. Still, they had held
fast their mutual faith. Martha might have been the wife of a man who
sat among the senators of his native State, and Adam could have won
the hand, as he had unintentionally won the heart, of a rich and
comely widow. But neither of them desired good-fortune save to share
it with the other.

At length that calm despair which occurs only in a strong and somewhat
stubborn character and yields to no second spring of hope settled down
on the spirit of Adam Colburn. He sought an interview with Martha and
proposed that they should join the Society of Shakers. The converts of
this sect are oftener driven within its hospitable gates by worldly
misfortune than drawn thither by fanaticism, and are received without
inquisition as to their motives. Martha, faithful still, had placed
her hand in that of her lover and accompanied him to the Shaker
village. Here the natural capacity of each, cultivated and
strengthened by the difficulties of their previous lives, had soon
gained them an important rank in the society, whose members are
generally below the ordinary standard of intelligence. Their faith and
feelings had in so