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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS
CAMBRIDGE: MDCCCCIX

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY KATE DOUGLAS RIGGS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published October 1909_

CONTENTS

I. Mother Ann's Children 1

II. A Son of Adam 23

III. Divers Doctrines 43

IV. Louisa's Mind 67

V. The Little Quail Bird 87

VI. Susanna speaks in Meeting 107

VII. "The Lower Plane" 121

VIII. Concerning Backsliders 141

IX. Love Manifold 163

X. Brother and Sister 177

XI. "The Open Door" 195

XII. The Hills of Home 211

ILLUSTRATIONS

Looking up into her mother's face expectantly
(page 102) _Frontispiece_

Do you remember the little Nelson girl and her
mother? 12

Susanna sat in her corner beside the aged Tabitha 112

Hetty looking at the lad with all her heart in her
eyes 130

I

MOTHER ANN'S CHILDREN

[Illustration]

It was the end of May, when "spring goeth all in white." The apple trees
were scattering their delicate petals on the ground, dropping them over
the stone walls to the roadsides, where in the moist places of the
shadows they fell on beds of snowy innocence. Here and there a single
tree was tinged with pink, but so faintly, it was as if the white were
blushing. Now and then a tiny white butterfly danced in the sun and
pearly clouds strayed across the sky in fleecy flocks.

Everywhere the grass was of ethereal greenness, a greenness drenched
with the pale yellow of spring sunshine. Looking from earth to sky and
from blossom to blossom, the little world of the apple orchards,
shedding its falling petals like fair-weather snow, seemed made of
alabaster and porcelain, ivory and mother-of-pearl, all shimmering on a
background of tender green.

After you pass Albion village, with its streets shaded by elms and
maples and its outskirts embowered in blossoming orchards, you wind
along a hilly country road that runs between grassy fields. Here the
whiteweed is already budding, and there are pleasant pastures dotted
with rocks and fringed with spruce and fir; stretches of woodland, too,
where the road is lined with giant pines and you lift your face
gratefully to c