The Shaker Bridal

Nathaniel Hawthorne

One day, in the sick chamber of Father Ephraim, who had been forty years the presiding

elder over the Shaker settlement at Goshen, there was an assemblage of several of the chief

men of the sect. Individuals had come from the rich establishment at Lebanon, from

Canterbury, Harvard, and Alfred, and from all the other localities where this strange people

have fertilized the rugged hills of New England by their systematic industry. An elder was

likewise there, who had made a pilgrimage of a thousand miles from a village of the faithful

in Kentucky, to visit his spiritual kindred, the children of the sainted mother Ann. He had

partaken of the homely abundance of their tables, had quaffed the far-famed Shaker cider,

his patriarchal staff to other hands. At his footstool stood a man and woman, both clad in

the Shaker garb.

"My brethren," said Father Ephraim to the surrounding elders, feebly exerting himself to

utter these few words, "here are the son and daughter to whom I would commit the trust of

which Providence is about to lighten my weary shoulders. Read their faces, I pray you, and

say whether the inward movement of the spirit hath guided my choice aright."

Accordingly, each elder looked at the two candidates with a most scrutinizing gaze. The

man, whose name was Adam Colburn, had a face sunburnt with labor in the fields, yet

intelligent, thoughtful, and traced with cares enough for a whole lifetime, though he had

barely reached middle age. There was something severe in his aspect, and a rigidity

old man. "I would like better to see the hoar-frost of autumn on their heads. Methinks, also,

they will be exposed to peculiar temptations, on account of the carnal desires which have

heretofore subsisted between them."

"Nay, brother," said the elder from Canterbury, "the hoar-frost and the black-frost hath done

its work on Brother Adam and Sister Martha, even as we sometimes discern its traces in our

cornfields, while they are yet green. And why should we question the wisdom of our

venerable Father's purpose although this pair, in their early youth, have loved one another as

the world's people love? Are there not many brethren and sisters among us, who have lived

long together in wedlock, yet, adopting our faith, find their hearts purified from all but

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spiritual affection?"

Whether or no the early loves of Adam and Martha had rendered it inexpedient that they

should now preside together over a Shaker village, it was certainly most singular that such

should be the final result of many warm and tender hopes. Children of neighboring families,

their affection was older even than their school-days; it seemed an innate principle,

fortune. But Adam, being of a calm and cautious character, was loath to relinquish the

advantages which a single man possesses for raising himself in the world. Year after year,

therefore, their marriage had been deferred. Adam Colburn had followed many vocations,

had travelled far, and seen much of the world and of life. Martha had earned her bread

sometimes as a seamstress, sometimes as help to a farmer's wife, sometimes as school-

mistress of the village children, sometimes as a nurse or watcher of the sick, thus acquiring

a varied experience, the ultimate use of which she little anticipated. But nothing had gone

prosperously with either of the lovers; at no subsequent moment would matrimony have

been so prudent a measure as when they had first parted, in the opening bloom of life, to

seek a better fortune. Still they had held fast their mutual faith. Martha might have been the

The converts of this sect are oftener driven within its hospitable gates by worldly

misfortune than drawn thither by fanaticism and are received without inquisition as to their

motives. Martha, faithful still, had placed her hand in that of her lover, and accompanied

him to the Shaker village. Here the natural capacity of each, cultivated and strengthened by

the difficulties of their previous lives, had soon gained them an important rank in the

Society, whose members are generally below the ordinary standard of intelligence. Their

faith and feelings had, in some degree, become assimilated to those of their fellow-

worshippers. Adam Colburn gradually acquired reputation, not only in the management of

the temporal affairs of the Society, but as a clear and efficient preacher of their doctrines.

Martha was not less distinguished in the duties proper to her sex. Finally, when the

piercingly upon them, "if ye can conscientiously undertake this charge, speak, that the

brethren may not doubt of your fitness."

"Father," replied Adam, speaking with the calmness of his character, "I came to your village

a disappointed man, weary of the world, worn out with continual trouble, seeking only a

security against evil fortune, as I had no hope of good. Even my wishes of worldly success

were almost dead within me. I came hither as a man might come to a tomb, willing to lie

down in its gloom and coldness, for the sake of its peace and quiet. There was but one

earthly affection in my breast, and it had grown calmer since my youth; so that I was

satisfied to bring Martha to be my sister, in our new abode. We are brother and sister; nor

would I have it otherwise. And in this peaceful village I have found all that I hoped for,--all

that I desire. I will strive, with my best strength, for the spiritual and temporal good of our

which I am about to resign."

would have been profanation to utter there.

"Adam has spoken," said she hurriedly; "his sentiments are likewise mine."

But while speaking these few words, Martha grew so pale that she looked fitter to be laid in

her coffin than to stand in the presence of Father Ephraim and the elders; she shuddered,

also, as if there were something awful or horrible in her situation and destiny. It required,

indeed, a more than feminine strength of nerve, to sustain the fixed observance of men so

exalted and famous throughout the sect as these were. They had overcome their natural

sympathy with human frailties and affections. One, when he joined the Society, had brought

with him his wife and children, but never, from that hour, had spoken a fond word to the

former, or taken his best-loved child upon his knee. Another, whose family refused to

early Shakers. Tradition whispered, at the firesides of the village, that Mother Ann had been

compelled to sear his heart of flesh with a red-hot iron before it could be purified from

earthly passions.

However that might be, poor Martha had a woman's heart, and a tender one, and it quailed

within her, as she looked round at those strange old men, and from them to the calm

features of Adam Colburn. But perceiving that the elders eyed her doubtfully, she gasped

for breath, and again spoke.

"With what strength is left me by my many troubles," said she, "I am ready to undertake this

charge, and to do my best in it."

"My children, join your hands," said Father Ephraim.

They did so. The elders stood up around, and the Father feebly raised himself to a more

erect position, but continued sitting in his great chair.

"I have bidden you to join your hands," said he, "not in earthly affection, for ye have cast

when the mission of Mother Ann shall have wrought its full effect,--when children shall no

more be born and die, and the last survivor of mortal race, some old and weary man like

The aged Father sank back exhausted, and the surrounding elders deemed, with good

withdrawn his hand from hers, and folded his arms with a sense of satisfied ambition. But

paler and paler grew Martha by his side, till, like a corpse in its burial clothes, she sank

down at the feet of her early lover; for, after many trials firmly borne, her heart could

endure the weight of its desolate agony no longer.

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