Her face glowed with emotion, her eyes shone, her lips were parted. It was a
new thought. Abby and Daniel gazed at her for a moment without speaking, then
Daniel said: "It's a terrible cross to some of the Brethren and Sisters to
live here outside of the world, but maybe it's more of a cross for such as you
to live in it, under such conditions as have surrounded you of late years. To
pursue good and resist evil, to bear your cross cheerfully and to grow in
grace and knowledge of truth while you're bearing it that's the lesson of
life, I suppose. If you find you can't learn it outside, come back to us,
Susanna."
"I will," she promised, "and no words can speak my gratitude for what you have
all done for me. Many a time it will come back to me and keep me from
faltering."
She looked back at him from the open doorway, timidly.
"Don't forget us, Sue and me, altogether," she said, her eyes filling with
tears. "Come to Farnham, if you will, and see if I am a credit to Shaker
teaching! I shall never be here again, perhaps, and somehow it seems to me as
if you, Elder Gray, with your education and your gifts, ought to be leading a
larger life than this."
"I've hunted in the wild Maine forests, in my young days; I've speared salmon
in her rivers and shot rapids ill a birchbark canoe," said the Elder, looking
up from the pine table that served as a desk.
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