"Needless to say, I read every word of the book to my Shaker friends before it was published. They took a deep interest in it, evincing keen delight in my rather facetious but wholly imaginary portrait of 'Brother Ansel, ' a 'born Shaker, ' and sadly confessing that my two young lovers, 'Hetty' and 'Nathan, ' who could not endure the rigors of the Shaker faith and fled together in the night to marry and join the world's people, --that this tragedy had often occurred in their community."