Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/191

Rh and that at New Lebanon is said to be wealthy, and to be still more and more extending its possessions. It is maintained by agriculture and the rearing of cattle. Everything which is made by the Shakers is substantial, but has something odd and devoid of taste in form and colour. The Shakers live well and work leisurely, because they have neither pleasures nor superfluity, and they work equally, and they work all. The sect increases slowly; you hear no scandalous stories told of these communities. Yet will it now and then happen that a young couple there, a brother and sister, will elope in order to unite themselves as man and wife, beyond the pale of the society. Nobody pursues them; they are merely considered as lost.

On one occasion, I have heard that a new-born child was laid at the door of a Shaker house. It caused a great excitement when it was found there the next morning, and all the Shakers, men and women, young and old, went forth to see that wonderful little thing, a baby! “The baby” became the object of curiosity and interest to the whole Shaker community; and “the baby's” well-being, its growth and progress, the subject of general conversation and general attention. “The baby” was for a long time the chief personage in the Shaker community.

And now you must indeed have had enough of the Shakers. I wish, however, to see more of them and of their commonwealth, and hope yet to have an opportunity of doing so. Mother Anne Lee, how many of Eve's daughters, and sons too, are there who might very well go to school—if not exactly into the dancing-school—with thee!

I passed the evening at Lebanon Wells with my friends the S.'s and L.'s, and bathed also in its crystalline, sulphur-impregnated bath. Finally, I contended with the S.'s, because, we had the old story over again, I wished