"Mardie," came a soft little voice from across the room; "Mardie, what is a backslider?" "Where did you hear that long word, Sue?" asked Susanna, rousing herself from her dream. "'Tisn't so long as 'regenerating' and more easier." "Regenerating means 'making over,' you know." "There'd ought to be children's words and grown-up words,--that's what _I_ think," said Sue, decisively; "but what does 'backslider' mean?" "A backslider is one who has been climbing up a hill and suddenly begins to slip back." "Doesn't his feet take hold right, or why does he slip?" "Perhaps he can't manage his feet; perhaps they just won't climb." "Yes, or p'raps he just doesn't want to climb any more; but it must be frightensome, sliding backwards." "I suppose it is." "Is it wicked?" "Why, yes, it is, generally; perhaps always." "Brother Nathan and Sister Hetty were backsliders; Sister Tabitha said so. She told Jane never to speak their names again any more than if they was dead." "Then you had better not speak of them, either." "There's so many things better not to speak of in the world, sometimes I think 'twould be nicer to be an angel." "Nicer, perhaps, but one has to be very good to be an angel." "Backsliders couldn't be angels, I s'pose?" "Not while they were backsliders; but perhaps they'd begin to climb again, and then in time they might grow to be angels." "I shouldn't think likely," remarked Sue, decisively, clicking her needles as one who could settle most spiritual problems in a jiffy. "I think the sliding kind is diff'rent from the climbing kind, and they don't make easy angels." A long pause followed this expression of opinion, this simple division of the human race, at the start, into sheep and goats. Then presently the untiring voice broke the stillness again. "Nathan and Hetty slid back when they went away from here. Did we backslide when we left Fardie and Jack?" "I'm not sure but that we did," said poor Susanna. "There's children-Shakers, and brother-and-sister Shakers, but no father-and-mother Shakers?" "No; they think they can do just as much good in the world without being mothers and fathers." "Do you think so?" "Ye-es, I believe I do." "Well, are you a truly Shaker, or can't you be till you wear a cap?" "I'm not a Shaker yet, Sue." "You're just only a mother?" "Yes, that's about all." "Maybe we'd better go back to where there's not so many Sisters and more mothers, so you'll have somebody to climb togedder with?" "I could climb here, Sue, and so could you." "Yes, but who'll Fardie and Jack climb with? I wish they'd come and see us. Brother Ansel would make Fardie laugh, and Jack would love farm-work, and we'd all be so happy. I miss Fardie awfully! He didn't speak to me much, but I liked to look at his curly hair and think how lovely it would be if he did take notice of me and play with me." A sob from Susanna brought Sue, startled, to her side.