s Martha grew so pale that she looked
fitter to be laid in her coffin than to stand in the presence of
Father Ephraim and the elders; she shuddered, also, as if there were
something awful or horrible in her situation and destiny. It required,
indeed, a more than feminine strength of nerve to sustain the fixed
observance of men so exalted and famous throughout the Beet as these
were. They had overcome their natural sympathy with human frailties
and affections. One, when he joined the society, had brought with him
his wife and children, but never from that hour had spoken a fond word
to the former or taken his best-loved child upon his knee. Another,
whose family refused to follow him, had been enabled--such was his
gift of holy fortitude--to leave them to the mercy of the world. The
youngest of the elders, a man of about fifty, had been bred from
infancy in a Shaker village, and was said never to have clasped a
woman's hand in his own, and to have no conception of a closer tie
than the cold fraternal one of the sect. Old Father Ephraim was the
most awful character of all. In his youth he had been a dissolute
libertine, but was converted by Mother Ann herself, and had partaken
of the wild fanaticism of the early Shakers. Tradition whispered at
the firesides of the village that Mother Ann had been compelled to
sear his heart of flesh with a red-hot iron before it could be
purified from earthly passions.

However that might be, poor Martha had a woman's heart, and a tender
one, and it quailed within her as she looked round at those strange
old men, and from them to the calm features of Adam Colburn. But,
perceiving that the elders eyed her doubtfully, she gasped for breath
and again spoke.

"With what strength is left me by my many troubles," said she, "I am
ready to undertake this charge, and to do my best in it."

"My children, join your hands," said Father Ephraim.

They did so. The elders stood up around, and the father feebly raised
himself to a more erect position, but continued sitting in his great
chair.

"I have bidden you to join your hands," said he, "not in earthly
affection, for ye have cast off its chains for ever, but as brother
and sister in spiritual love and helpers of one another in your
allotted task. Teach unto others the faith which ye have received.
Open wide your gates--I deliver you the keys thereof--open them wide
to all who will give up the iniquities of the world and come hither to
lead li