is character was of puritanical sternness; he was a strict
disciplinarian, and insisted upon obedience to the rules of Shaker life,
"the sacred laws of Zion," as he was wont to term them. He magnified his
office, yet he was of a kindly disposition easily approached by
children, and not without a quaint old-time humor.

There was a long pause while the two faithful leaders of the little
flock were absorbed in thought; then the Elder said: "Susanna's all you
say, and the child,--well, if she could be purged of her dross, I never
saw a creature better fitted to live the celestial life; but we must
not harbor any divided hearts here. When the time comes, we must dismiss
her with our blessing."

"Yee, I suppose so," said Eldress Abby, loyally, but it was with a sigh.
Had she and Tabitha been left to their own instincts, they would have
gone out into the highways and hedges, proselyting with the fervor of
Mother Ann's day and generation.

"After all, Abby," said the Elder, rising to take his leave, still in a
sort of mild trance,--"after all, Abby, I suppose the Shakers don't own
the whole of heaven. I'd like to think so, but I can't. It's a big
place, and it belongs to God."

IX

LOVE MANIFOLD

[Illustration]

The woods on the shores of Massabesic Pond were stretches of tapestry,
where every shade of green and gold, olive and brown, orange and
scarlet, melted the one into the other. The sombre pines made a
deep-toned background; patches of sumach gave their flaming crimson; the
goldenrod grew rank and tall in glorious profusion, and the maples
outside the Office Building were balls of brilliant carmine. The air was
like crystal, and the landscape might have been bathed in liquid amber,
it was so saturated with October yellow.

Susanna caught her breath as she threw her chamber window wider open in
the early morning; for the greater part of the picture had been painted
during the frosty night.

"Throw your little cape round your shoulders and come quickly, Sue!" she
exclaimed.

The child ran to her side. "Oh, what a goldy, goldy morning!" she cried.

One crimson leaf with a long heavy stem that acted as a sort of rudder,
came down to the window-sill with a sidelong scooping flight, while two
or three gayly painted ones, parted from the tree by the same breeze,
floated airily along as if borne on unseen wings, finally alighting on
Sue's head and shoulders like tropical birds.

"You cried in the night, M