Having waited until nearly famished, the sister blandly told us,
as if it were a matter of local interest, but otherwise of small
consequence, that the North Family were strict vegetarians,
serving no meat whatsoever; the only meat family was at the other
end of the village.

We were ready for meat, for chickens, ducks, green goose, anything
that walked on legs; we were not ready for pumpkin, squash, boiled
potatoes, canned peas, and cabbage; but a theory as well as a
condition confronted us; it was give in or move on. We gave in,
but for fifteen cents more per plate bargained for preserves,
maple syrup, and honey,--for something cloying to deceive the
outraged palate.

But that dinner was a revelation of what a good cook can do with
vegetables in season; it was the quintessence of delicacy, the
refinement of finesse, the veritable apotheosis of the kitchen
garden; meat would have been brutal, the intrusion of a chop
inexcusable, the assertion of a steak barbarous, even a terrapin
would have felt quite out of place amidst things so fragrant and
impalpable as the marvellous preparations of vegetables from that
wonderful Shaker kitchen.

Everything was good, but the various concoctions of sweet corn
were better; and such sweet corn! it is still a savory
recollection.

Then the variety of preserves, jellies, and syrups; fifteen cents
extra were never bestowed to better advantage. We cast our coppers