dren thought. Miss Fitch was very much pleased with
it, and that added to their pleasure, so that the purchase of the
work-basket was one of the pleasantest events of the day. Eyebright
spent what was left of her money in buying a new mop-handle as a
present for Wealthy, who wanted one, she knew. She was a good deal
laughed at by the other boys and girls, but she didn't mind that a
bit, and shouldering her mop-handle as if it had been a flag-staff,
followed with the rest wherever Sister Dorcas chose to lead them.

Sister Dorcas took them to see the big barns, sweet with freshly made
hay, and to the dairy and cheese-house, with white shelves laden with
pans of rich milk and curds, the very sight of which made the children
hungry. Next they peeped into the meeting-house for Sundays, and then
they were taken to the room where fruit was packed and sorted. Here
they found half-a-dozen young Shakeresses, busy in filling baskets
with blackberries for next day's market.

These Shaker girls pleased the children very much; they looked so
fresh and prim and pretty in their sober costume, and so cheerful and
smiling. Eyebright fell in love at once with the youngest and
prettiest, a girl only two or three years older than herself. She
managed to get close to her, and, under pretence of helping with the
blackberries, drew her a little to one side, where they could talk
without being overheard.

"Do you like to live here?" she asked confidentially, as their fingers
met in the blackberry basket.

"Yea," said the little Shakeress, glancing round shyly. Then as she
saw that nobody was noticing them, she became more communicative.

"I like it--pretty well," she said. "But I guess I shan't stay here
always."

"Won't you? What will you do then? Where will you go?"

"I don't know yet; but Ruth Berguin--she is my sister in the
flesh--was once of this family, and she left, and went back to the
world's people and got married. She lives up in Canada now, and has
got two babies. She came for a visit once, and fetched one of them.
Sister Samantha felt real badly when Ruth went, but she liked the baby
ever so much. I mean to go back to the world's people too, some day."

"Oh my! perhaps _you_ will get married," suggested Eyebright, greatly
excited at the idea.

"Perhaps I shall," answered the small Shakeress with unmoved gravity.

Then she told Eyebright that her name was Jane, and she was an orphan,
and that she and sister Orphah, whom