Holman F. Day

“ You have asked me to put a sin on my immortal soul by jumping into Sabba'day Lake with you. When I told you I loved you I was telling you what is so, for I have been taught to tell the truth. I have learned that the women in the world do not own that they love so freely. But I am only a simple Shaker girl, and I do not know the ways of the world and how to evade plain truth, and so I told you when you asked. ”

“ Paul scuffed away heavily behind his harrow and he kicked discontentedly at every earth ball in his path. His peace of mind was further disturbed by Elder Vance. The grim old man stumped across the mottled, broken ground and halted him with a toil-gnarled hand upraised peremptorily.
"I have spoken to you before," said the elder, "regarding your conversations with a sister of the community. There is no profit for the soul in a dialogue with woman. Woman has been prone to talk since the dialogue in the Garden of Eden. And always much mischief has come about from it. ”

“ Her swimming eyes gazed adoringly at him from the shadow of the Shaker bonnet.
"May I kiss you?" he stammered.
"Yea," she said. "for you are a man to-day not a thief in the night."
As their lips met Elder Vance hastened about the bend in the road.
"Think you that we shall allow you to go in sin and shame to carnal destruction in the world?" he demanded. "You are not wed. You shall not go away together!"
Paul pointed through the soft shimmer of the autumn sunlight to a little white house on the summit of a distant hill. A spire rose by. ”

“ Elder Vance licked his lips with a look of uncertainty in his face.
"I have found," and Paul's gaze met all the stares that were focussed on him, "that I am not one of you. I have tried to be faithful and content and live according to my vow. But a man thinks different things from a boy. ”

“ But"—and here the spirit of the woman broke through the crust of sect and religious reserve and threw at him the true rebuke—"the wickedness that is in you it is for God to forgive, after you have made your peace with Him. Between you and me, Brother Paul, there is another matter. It is your cowardice. You have come to me with a coward's words to-night. You have asked me to be a coward with you. I have God and my faith between me and the world now. Would I be wise to exchange those blessed safeguards for a coward?" ”

“ Adalia's shrieks called the help that came.
Bethnial and Japhet came stumbling through the night and, muttering mild protest, awkwardly disentangled the antagonists. At command of the panting Elder, Paul was hustled into the men's quarters and after a struggle was deposited in a room that could be barred and locked.
"Pray to God to quell the devil that is in you," Elder Vance shouted through the keyhole. "And prepare yourself for the discipline that His servants in this community may see fit to visit upon you under His guidance. You are a man of black sin." ”

“ The impatience and disaffection of many weeks: of rigorous suppression in the Shaker community rung in his voice. "I stopped her to talk to her."
"Spiritual matters are better for meditation than for discourse in the working hours," said the Elder, "And of course there can be no other than spiritual matters for discourse between man and woman in this community!"
Conversation was never brisk among the men of the community. Therefore Paul, the only young man in the community, had plenty of opportunity for reflection. ”

“ The people outside pity us poor fools here."
"Poor fools!" she echoed. "I don't care if I am a fool. God tells us that there are mansions in Heaven for those who are fools on earth for His sake."
"Won't you go with me?" ”