The Press., 1891-02-19

pond down there and everything fixed up in good shape for picknacs. But we didn't go down. We stayed and looked round and talked with Miss Bright Eyes.
 You've heard of the Shaker dance2 We'll, we went there the right O day to see it, but they y've!got it all fixed, even for the fies All round the walls of the dairy they have crimpled papers, all red and white and all colors, all strung up on the walls. We wondered what twas for, and found out twas for the flies to dance on-a kind of heaven for the fies-but they want but precious few flies in it, so they want. guess theyssmelt dinner cookin' out in the kitchen. Perhaps youtthink it's funny to leave heaven for the sake of a meal of victuals. Humph Perhaps you never eat at the shakers. I didn't get none of their gingerbread, but they say it's scrumptious ain't none of your, ,stingy lit- tie slices neither.
 Its fine place to go. You can'eo there and stay as long as you're mine ter, live there if you wanter, ..and all you've got to do is to give 'emSeverything you've got !; that makes it square. Thatsain't much of job for some folks to do-they ain't got much to give up. But then you can ske- daddle any time when you get sick of be- ing Shakers. Some of the youngsters do that way-stop there and get good eddi- cation, learn to play on the organ and all
 that, and then off they go. But 'taint
 what l call so very honorable.
 They teach ye how to do lot of nice
 things there, if you stay long enough.
 "a whole room full everything you could
 think of most-pigs, and pond lilies, and
 sunfowers, and mice, nd pocketbooks,
 and goodness knows what else. Miss
 Bright Eyes, she showed Isa a nice silk
 quilt, as crazy as anybody's, all hand
 painted, and rugs in all sorts of patterus,
 and wanted some of that honey there on
 that plate with knife on it all ready.
 s'pose twas put there purpose, but had
 n't hardly dast touch it. Miss Bright Eyes,
 she says she can pick bushel O huckle-
 berries in or 6 hours, nd I'll bet she
 could if any one could.
 She gave us a magazine or something,
 called "The Manifesto" that had all about
 Shakers in 1t, and she offered to sell us an-
 other that had a lot more in it, but we
 couldn't stop for everything, don't ye see,
 cause MT. Great Heart and Miss Great
 Heart they'd got their minds all fixed up
 to be in Longmeader about such time.
 So we did
 If yon never went to Longmeader you
 want to go there the first place you go.
 Land was cheap I guess when they laid
 out them roads. Broad s no name for
 'em. Come to have great big nice parks,
 growth in the middle of the street, all full
 of big trees-its jest too lovely for any
 thing
 We went to mans house that want to
 home, but the lady was, nd she aOas a lady, nd so was the house, all fixed up in
 great nice pictures in gold frames, nd pi-
 anners, n books, n everything. Nd the
 lady was that nice she'd almost make you
 think the house was yours, and yu'd aluz
 lived in it.
 But the man, he didn't stay away much
 after dinner-time, and tell you don't
 blame him bit. Come to have beefsteak
 nd green corn, nd have the corn all nib.
 bled off for ye, and fixed up. and eat jest
 as long as ye want ter Nd then ye sit : nd talk, nd laugh, while somebody comes
 in nd clears off the table nd sets it agin- brings along some brown cake, all raisins
 a steamin', nd call it puddin', nd put or ; some white frothy sauce nd fixin's tha makes ye wish ye hadn't eat nothin' be fore, nd seein's ye have makes ye iist ach'
 to carry the rest home, after you have ca all you can stuff, etc., 1t makes ye wonder how on earth ye're ever go'nter git ul ;, agin. Nd then to have another set O plates come on, and couple of mush melons that growed on the Great Hear plain didn't see what in time anybody !, was goin' to do about it. But that gentle man and lady, they acted jest as of they knew how it was done all right enough nd we kinder follered suit. Some of u. , , didn't make out very well-dldn't ca more's three or four pieces anyway but guess they was sorry afterwards. Some ca salt on it, nd some sugar, and, come tC look, we hadn't been but an hour and g
 quarter eatin' but then we should have sat longer, I guess, if there hadn't beer some other things that the gentleman wanted us to get interested ID.
 Out on the verandah we come acrost the comiclest lookin' creature. It was jest , the color of the stone the house was made out of, nd striped off in gay colors, md you never in all your life SC en handsomer jewels n his eyes was. Jennie, she thought it was lovely. They got micro scope, nd we had good look at him, and
 then Jennie nor none the rest didn't know enough to tell what twas. Isa and Glars they was mighty stand offish-called il a worm, and wouldn't hear a word about carryin' it home in a bottle. We went ou nd looked around spell and seen the sphynx. I knew they aluz had the sphyn1 in geographies, and here I'd run right on to one to put into mine. MT. Ely-tha was the mans name-found it down il Connecticut, and had it brung up. They had lot O more curus things. Jennie she thought it was pretty nice. She'd been down to the shore, nd she knew jes how rocks is made, nd she lowed it wal curus how them great wave marks got on to them boulders that had been buried ul down in Connecticut. But we looked ou a little further nd there was the Connec | ticut river glistenin', and made up m, a mind there'd been freshet sometime, 'nt the river had got to wavin', but you couldn't make Jennie believe it. The rail road was right clost by, too, nd yol e might jest as we'll tried to make Jenni believe the railroad did it, as to think tn, . river did. Some girls is that set. Sh, | nd one or two others stuck to it that tn - ocean had been there sometime. Humph It looks likely, don't it?
 6 After while it was time for us to start e We wished we didn't have to, but we did a And what should that nice gentleman an' l: lady do but hitch up and go along wit 'f us. Nd we drove all around their park > O, but it was fine. All full of great bi e large trees that was there before tn q sphynx turned to stone. likelys not. Pal