"We often find left on the same China dish, Meat, apple sauce, pickle, brown bread and minced fish: Another's replenished with butter and cheese, With pie, cake, and toast, perhaps, added to these." "You say it very nicely," commended Susanna. "There's more:-- "Now if any virtue in this can be shown, By peasant, by lawyer, or king on the throne; We freely will forfeit whatever we've said, And call it a virtue to waste meat and bread." "There's a great deal to learn when you're being a Shaker," sighed Sue, as she finished her rhyme. "There's a great deal to learn everywhere," her mother answered. "What verse did Eldress Abby give you to-day?" "For little tripping maids may follow God Along the ways that saintly feet have trod," quoted the child. "Am I a tripping maid, Mardie?" she continued. "Yes, dear." "If I trip too much, mightn't I fall?" "Yes, I suppose so." "Is tripping the same as skipping?" "About the same." "Is it polite to tripanskip when you're following God?" "It couldn't be impolite if you meant to be good. A tripping maid means just a young one." "What is a maid?" "A little girl." "When a maid grows up, what is she?" "Why--she's a maiden, I suppose." "When a maiden grows up, what is _she_?" "Just a woman, Sue." "What is saintly feet?" "Feet like those of Eldress Abby or Elder Gray; feet of people who have always tried to do right." "Are Brother Ansel's feet saintly?" "He's a good, kind, hard-working man." "Is good-kind-hard-working same as saintly?" "Well, it's not so very different, perhaps.--Now, Sue, I've asked you before, don't let your mind grope, and your little tongue wag, every instant; it isn't good for you, and it certainly isn't good for me!" "All right; but 'less I gropeanwag sometimes, I don't see how I'll ever learn the things I 'specially want to know?" sighed Sue the insatiable. "Shall I tell you a Shaker story, one that Eldress Abby told me last evening?" "Oh, do, Mardie!" cried Sue, crossing her feet, folding her hands, and looking up into her mother's face expectantly.