The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-11-19
MARIA AND STEPHEN.

Strange Is the heart of man. with its quick mys-
tcrious instincts;
Strange il the life of man, and fatcd and fatal are
moments.
LOngfellOw uttered the above senti-
ment withOu. ever having been Shaker,
worn short wasted coat, or danced in
meeting on Sunday; but he could have
come no nearer the truth had he lived
and died q member of that sect; the
chances are that, whatever tho sentiment,
he would have expressed it rs grammati-
cally, for his schoolin' would have been
limited to three months per annum until
he was big enough to work.
Katy Maria and Stephen had been
brought up in the "true faith" of Mother
Ann Lee. Their lives, except an insig-
nilicant fragment in the beginning of
each, had been spent under its teaching.
"Were they born Shakersy' What a
question. Their creed rigidly reduces
every one to the condition of TOpsy.
Under its tenets child may grow; but
be bOrn?-never.
Katy Maria and Stephen had grown up
here. Had it been permitted them to
know anything of their antecedents, they
would have learned that they had started
ont with something in common; both
were orphans, waits picked up in the
city slums, and brought here, by the good
brethren to be saved las brands from the
buYning." But Stephen had enjoyed
precedence of Katy Maria in his entrance
into life, and his coming to the commu-
nifty. Being five years her senior he had
received five years more of training in
the way he should go, and what had one
right to expect but that if Katy's heart
set up II worldly fiutter some day under
the little round cape which concealed the
outline of her slender waist, and Stephen
by hook or crook discovered it, he should
take her hand, metaphorically, and lead
her again into the narrow way?
but the heart is deceitful and desper-
ately wicked" The reader may think
that having grown up here together, it
was only natural that they should have
become fond of each other. But, come
to think of it, they hadn't grown up to-
gethcr. Stephen had never carried Katy
Mara's dinner pail home from school
and shyly given her long straw full Of
the first ripe raspberries, to the lasting
jealousy of the other girls, because at
that time of year he was not permitted to
go to school, but trudegd along behind
the big brethren, in his bare feet, hoeing
WIN Va Tuning ulOCi "hiC III "lhtCi
stern fate had decreed that he shouldn't
draw her home on his sled chad he pos
sessed a sled, which he never did by de-
vising that during that season the girls
should stay home from school and make
shirts for the Great Unknown supplied
through Albany manufacturers.
To be sure, they met daily at table, but
that was under the calm eye of the elders,
who believed, and to believe was to exc
cute, that "chidren should be seen and
not heard" But st .phen, if not per-
mitted at an early age to have tongue,
had eyes; and he knew of no unwritten
law which should prevent him from
using them. And being human, how
was it possible that he should not notice,
on Sundays, in meeting, that the cheeks
of Katy Maria were redder and rounder,
her brown hair, what little he could see
of it, under the stiff little lace cap, CLOS
sier than that of the other girls9 How
help seeing that the curves described by
her flowing dress skirt, rs they wheeled
and reeled in the Sunday dance, were
more graceful than those of her sisters2
Or when she sang
But therel l believe that was the be-
ginning of it all, for Katy Maria not only
had pretty, girlish voice, but, being
one of the younger sisters, had actually
learned to play on the melodeon. and to
sing tunes-and did not, like the older
brethren and sisters, trust solely to Sin
spiration." There was inspiration enough
in her singing, heaven knows, but it
focused itself all on one spot like the
SUMS rays through burning glass; and
that one spot was-the heart of Stephen.
Did Stephen know he was in love? Not
he! Had his sentiments on the abstract
questions of love and marriage under
gone change? He was aware of none.
Had he been catechised ON the subject he
would have replied to the satisfaction of
the stanchest elder in the community
that those things belonged to ''thc
world, the flesh, and the devil" and had
no place in the affections of the well bal
anced Shaker.
And Katy Maria? How was it with
her, meantime? All! woman's eyes are
quick, and Katy Maria's, sharpened by a
something within, which she had not yet
recognized as the immortal fire of love
were no exception. How could she help
noticing that when he spoke in meeting,
for Stephen was stalwart young man
now, and had begun to "give testimony,
that his tones were less nasal (softened,
perchance, by the mysterious process
going on within) than those of the other
berthren; that his broad shoulders
looked more symmetrical under his short
wasted coat, and his broad brimmed hat
was worn with jauntier grace over his
long black locks than were those of his
peers.
Peers?
A long step in the business had been
tnly fnr To yofu nI.
had no peers.
A mans work is from sun to sum-
But woman's work is never done.
And thus it came about that when sup
per was over, and the brethren repaired
to their common sitting room, they
talked, they dOzed-a few of the younger
ones read n little in the weekly paper.
When the sisters went to their rooms
they sat down and knitted. For each
sister not only knitted her own hose, but
custom had made it law that she should
supply the socks of one brother.
Luckless Katy Maria! or, shall say,
lucky Katy Maria? For in the distribu-
ton Of yarn it fell to her share to knit
for Stephen. Never before had prosaic
blue yarn entangled with itself, in such
an ineXplicable and ineXtricable manner,
SO many queer sensations. The socks
grew apiece. They more than "grew
apacc," they outstripped all the other
socks knit in the community, and il soon
became common remark among the sis
ters that no such kntter had ever been
known among them us Katy Maria IL
even began to be suggested that she
"might earn u little spendin' money for
herself knitting socks for sale"
Short sighted sisters!
Did they not see that the impulse be-
hind her labors was love, not gain? All,
no! How should they? Their placid bo-
SONS had never been suffered to thrill with
the nnhOiy fire.
But Katy Maria one day blushed in
shame on awaking from reverie, as she
was "tOcing off" the last sock of the
winters work, the most salient point of
which reverie was an imaginary picture
of Stephen drawing on a pair of nice,
warm sOcks-not in his snug little room
in the community-but-oh, how the
bushes dcepened in cottage of his very
own, somewhere in which she, Katy
Maria, dwelled as well.
She dared not look at Stephen again
for months; and so perverse is the hui
man heart in saint or sinner that, when
Stephen paused outside the door of the
sisters sitting room to listen to her play
ing the melodeon, she purposely played
"Java March" all wrong, and closed tho
melodeon, saying 'she didn't feel like
playing"
Spall encouragement to loverl
But what business had a lover there'
Their creed was work, not love.
1t was noticed that Katy didn't seem
to thrive. Her voice was not so cherry
as of old in the Sunday singing, and in
the worshipful dance her step had lost its
lightness. And concealment indeed,
M tlo ,rnrn, xuoo faadinn ny, tho bloom,