66 With Feet to the Earth 



and if a new-comer feels a need of meat or 

 fish or eggs or tea or coffee, he can have 

 them. This absence of hard and fast rules 

 is a thing that draws one to the Shakers. 

 I had stopped for lunch in Hancock, an- 

 other Shaker village, and had confronted 

 this : cold beef, white and brown bread, 

 butter, rice, baked beans, potato cakes, 

 pickles, blackberry jam, ditto pie, apple 

 pie, milk, cream cheese, pot cheese, cake, 

 and doughnuts. Bill, twenty-five cents. 

 Only once did money go farther for me. 

 It was in the Catskills in their innocent 

 days, and I roused a native out of a nap to 

 get me a snack. He produced a wonder- 

 ful quantity of nutriment, and when I had 

 destroyed it and called for the reckoning, 

 he said he guessed he would have to tax 

 me about thirteen cents. 



Shakers go plainly dressed. They frown 

 on ornament, although they cultivate 

 flowers, and their living rooms are com- 

 fortable and cheery. Cats and canaries 

 are the only animals to be seen about the 

 houses, the cats being tolerated because 

 they catch mice ; but the people do no 



