ea' and 'nay' in a still small voice for the good of the same. I can't
see why it would be so much more indelicate and unbecomin' in them"--and
sez I, "they would have bonnets and shawls on, and she that wuz Mahala
had on a low neck and short sleeves." But they wouldn't yield, and I
wouldn't nuther.

But I am a eppisodin fearful, and to resoom. Wall, as I said, the
scrapin' had begun. One side of the room wuz partly cleaned so the paper
could go on, and then the fuss come up, and there it wuz, as you may
say, neither hay nor grass, neither frescoed nor papered nor nuthin'.
And of all the lookin' sights it wuz.

Wall, of course, if we had a fair in that meetin' house, we couldn't
have it in such a lookin' place to disgrace us in the eyes of Baptists
and 'Piscopals.

No, that meetin' house had got to be scraped, and we wimmen had got to
do the scrapin' with case knives.

It wuz a hard job. I couldn't help thinkin' quite a number of thoughts
as I stood on a barell with a board acrost it, afraid as death of
fallin' and a workin' for dear life, and the other female sisters a
standin' round on similar barells, all a-workin' fur beyond their
strengths, and all afraid of fallin', and we all a-knowin' what we had
got ahead on us a paperin' and a gettin' up the fair.

CHAPTER XIX.

Couldn't help a-methinkin' to myself several times. It duz seem to me
that there hain't a question a-comin' up before that Conference that
is harder to tackle than this plasterin' and the conundrum that is up
before us Jonesville wimmen how to raise 300 dollars out of nuthin', and
to make peace in a meetin' house where anarky is now rainin' down.

But I only thought these thoughts to myself, fur I knew every women
there wuz peacible and law abidin' and there wuzn't one of 'em but
what would ruther fall offen her barell then go agin the rules of the
Methodist Meetin' House.

Yes, I tried to curb down my rebellous thoughts, and did, pretty much
all the time. And good land! we worked so hard that we hadn't time
to tackle very curius and peculier thoughts, them that wuz dretful
strainin' and wearin' on the mind. Not of our own accord we didn't, fur
we had to jest nip in and work the hull durin' time.

[Illustration: "EVERY NIGHT JOSIAH WOULD TACKLE ME ON IT."]

And then we all knew how deathly opposed our pardners wuz to our takin'
any public part in meetin' house matters or mountin' rostrums, and that
thought quelled us down a sight.