n't
be foolish and conceited. You go right along to your bed; Jane and
Mary'll look after me."

It took Athalia a perceptible minute to get herself in hand sufficiently
to say, meekly, "Yee, Eldress." When she had shut the door behind her
with perhaps something more than Shaker emphasis, the Eldress opened her
eyes and smiled at old Jane. "She's smart," she said.

"Yee," said Sister Jane; and there was a little chuckle.

The sick woman closed her eyes again and sighed. "What a nurse Lydia
was!" she said; and added, suddenly: "How is Nathan getting along with
Lewis? There isn't much more time, I guess," she ended, mildly; "she
won't last it out another summer."

"She's done better than I expected to stay till now," Jane said; and the
Eldress nodded.

But it was, perhaps, a natural result of Athalia's abounding energy that
toward the end of that second winter in the Shaker village she should
grow irritable. The spring work was very heavy that year. Brother
William was too feeble to do even the light, pottering tasks that had
been allotted to him, and his vague babblings about the spirits ceased
altogether. In April old Jane died, and that put extra burdens on
Athalia's capable shoulders. "But I notice I don't get anything extra
for my work, not even thanks!" she told Lewis, sharply, and forgot to
call him "Brother." She had walked down Lonely Lake Road and stopped at
his gate. She looked thinner; her forget-me-not eyes were clouded,
and there was an impatient line about her lips, instead of the faint,
ecstatic smile which was part of her early experience.

"Yes, there's lots of work to be done," he agreed, "but when people do
it together--"

"What do you think?"--she interrupted him, her lip drooping a little in
a half-contemptuous smile--"they've heard again from that Sister Lydia
who ran away! You know who I mean?--Brother Nathan is always talking
about her. They think she'll come back. _I_ should say good riddance!
Though of course if it's genuine repentance I'll be glad. Only I don't
think it is."

"How pleased Nathan will be!" Lewis said.

"Oh, he's pleased; he's rather too pleased for a Shaker, it strikes me."

Lewis frowned. "There is joy in the presence of the angels," he reminded
her, gravely.

"Angels!" she said, with a laugh; "I don't believe so much in the angels
as I did before I knew so much about them. I understand that when
this 'angel' comes back I am to give up my room to her, if you please