[Illustration: SISTERS IN EVERY DAY COSTUME]
IV.--A VISIT TO MOUNT LEBANON.
It was on a bleak and sleety December day that I made my first visit to
a Shaker family. As I came by appointment, a brother, whom I later found
to be the second elder of the family, received me at the door, opening
it silently at the precise moment when I had reached the vestibule, and,
silently bowing, took my bag from my hand and motioned me to follow him.
We passed through a hall in which I saw numerous bonnets, cloaks, and
shawls hung up on pegs, and passed an empty dining-hall, and out of a
door into the back yard, crossing which we entered another house, and,
opening a door, my guide welcomed me to the "visitors' room." "This,"
said he, "is where you will stay. A brother will come in presently to
speak with you." And with a bow my guide noiselessly slipped out, softly
closed the door behind him, and I was alone.
I found myself in a comfortable low-ceiled room, warmed by an air-tight
stove, and furnished with a cot-bed, half a dozen chairs, a large wooden
spittoon filled with saw-dust, a looking-glass, and a table. The floor
was covered with strips of rag carpet, very neat and of a pretty, quiet
color, loosely laid down. Against the wall, near the stove, hung a
dust-pan, shovel, dusting-brush, and small broom.
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