see the settlement?"

"Of course it is! He said they were happy; I would like to see
what kind of life makes people happy."

He looked at the lighted end of his cigar and smiled,
but he said nothing. Afterward, as they followed the cart across
the field and out into the road, Athalia asked the old herb-gatherer
many questions about the happiness of the community life,
which he answered patiently enough. Once or twice he tried
to draw into their talk the silent husband who walked at her side,
but Lewis had nothing to say. Only when some reference was made
to one of the Prophecies did he look up in sudden interest.
"You take that to mean the Judgment, do you?" he said.
And for the rest of the walk to the settlement the two men discussed
the point, the Shaker walking with one hand on the heavy shaft,
for the support it gave him, and Lewis keeping step with him.

At the foot of the hill the road widened into a grassy street,
on both sides of which, under the elms and maples, were the
community houses, big and substantial, but gauntly plain;
their yellow paint, flaking and peeling here and there,
shone clean and fresh in the sparkle of morning. Except for a black
cat whose fur glistened like jet, dozing on a white doorstep,
the settlement, steeped in sunshine, showed no sign of life.
There was a strange remoteness from time about the place;
a sort of emptiness, and a silence that silenced even Athalia.

"Where IS everybody?" she said, in a lowered voice; as she spoke,
a child in a blue apron came from an open doorway and tugged a basket