and surprises Nancy at her task of carpeting the Peabody Pew, so that
it shall look as well as the others at next day's services. The rest
is easy to imagine. One can deny the reality of a book, but when two or
three thousand people have beheld Justin Peabody and Nancy Wentworth in
the flesh, and have seen the paint of the old Peabody Pew wiped with
a damp cloth, its cushion darned and its carpet tacked in place, it is
useless to argue; any more than it would be to deny the validity of the
egg of Columbus or the apple of William Tell.

As for "Susanna and Sue" the story would never have been written had I
not as a child and girl been driven once a year to the Shaker meeting at
the little village of Alfred, sixteen miles distant. The services were
then open to the public, but eventually permission to attend them was
withdrawn, because of the careless and sometimes irreverent behavior
of young people who regarded the Shaker costumes, the solemn dances
or marches, the rhythmic movements of the hands, the almost hypnotic
crescendo of the singing, as a sort of humorous spectacle. I learned
to know the brethren and sisters, and the Elder, as years went by,
and often went to the main house to spend a day or two as the guest of
Eldress Harriet, a saint, if ever there was one, or, later, with dear
Sister Lucinda.

The shining cleanliness and order, the frugality and industry, the
serenity and peace of these people, who had resigned the world and
"life on the plane of Adam," vowing themselves to celibacy, to public
confession of sins, and the holding of goods in common,--all this has
always had a certain exquisite and helpful influence upon my thought,
and Mr. W. D. Howells paid a far more beautiful tribute to them in "The
Undiscovered Country."

It is needless to say that I read every word of the book to my Shaker
friends before it was published. They took a deep interest in it,
evincing keen delight in my rather facetious but wholly imaginary
portrait of "Brother Ansel," a "born Shaker," and sadly confessing that
my two young lovers, "Hetty" and "Nathan," who could not endure the
rigors of the Shaker faith and fled together in the night to marry and
join the world's people,--that this tragedy had often occurred in their
community.

Here, then, are the three simple homespun tales. I believe they are true
to life as I see it. I only wish my readers might hear the ripple of the
Maine river running through them; breathe the fr