sit so close to me?"

"But we are of the world's people now, Miriam," answered Josiah.

The girl persisted in her prudery, nor did the youth, in fact,
seem altogether free from a similar sort of shyness; so they sat
apart from each other, gazing up the hill, where the moonlight
discovered the tops of a group of buildings. While their
attention was thus occupied, a party of travellers, who had come
wearily up the long ascent, made a halt to refresh themselves at
the spring. There were three men, a woman, and a little girl and
boy. Their attire was mean, covered with the dust of the summer's
day, and damp with the night-dew; they all looked woebegone, as
if the cares and sorrows of the world had made their steps
heavier as they climbed the hill; even the two little children
appeared older in evil days than the young man and maiden who had
first approached the spring.

"Good evening to you, young folks," was the salutation of the
travellers; and "Good evening, friends," replied the youth and
damsel.

"Is that white building the Shaker meeting-house?" asked one of
the strangers. "And are those the red roofs of the Shaker
village?"

"Friend, it is the Shaker village," answered Josiah, after some
hesitation.

The travellers, who, from the first, had looked suspiciously at