The straight, plain dresses were as
fresh and smooth as perfect washing could make them, and the round childlike
faces looked quaint and sweet with the cropped hair tucked under the stiff
little caps. Sue was seated with Mary and Jane on the steps, and Susanna saw
with astonishment that her needles were moving to and fro and she was knitting
as serenely and correctly as a mother in Israel; singing, too, in a delicate
little treble that was like a skylark's morning note. Susanna could hear her
distinctly as she delightedly flung out the long words so dear to her soul and
so difficult to dull little Jane and Mary:--
"Resurrecting, Soul-Inspiring,
Regenerating Gospel Life,
It leadeth away from all sin and strife."
Jane's cap was slightly unsettled, causing its wearer to stop knitting now
and then and pull it forward or push it back; and in one of these little
feminine difficulties Susanna saw Sue reach forward and deftly transfer the
cap to her own head. Jane was horrified, but rather slow to wrath and equally
slow in ingenuity. Sue looked a delicious Shaker with her delicate face, her
lovely eyes, and her yellow hair grown into soft rings; and quite intoxicated
with her cap, her knitting, and the general air of holiness so unexpectedly
emanating from her, she moved her little hands up and down, as the tune rose
and fell, in a way that would have filled Eldress Abby with joy.
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