ther high places in the land, if it
hadn't been fer duty that wuz a-grippin' holt of us, we would gladly
have shirked out of it and gin the honor to some humble but worthy
constituent.

Fer the lengths of paper wuz extremely long, the ceilin' fearfully high,
and oh! how lofty and tottlin' the barells looked to us. And we both on
us, Sister Sylvester Bobbet and I, had giddy and dizzy spells right on
the ground, let alone bein' perched up on barells, a-liftin' our arms up
fur, fur beyond the strength of their sockets.

[Illustration: "WE FELT NERVED UP TO DO OUR BEST."]

But duty wuz a-callin' us, and the other wimmen also, and it wuzn't for
me, nor Sister Sylvester Bobbet to wave her nor them off, or shirk out
of hazerdous and dangerous jobs when the good of the Methodist Meetin'
House wuz at the Bay.

No, with as lofty looks as I ever see in my life (I couldn't see my own,
but I felt 'em), and with as resolute and martyrous feelin's as ever
animated two wimmen's breasts, Sister Sylvester Bobbet and I grasped
holt of the length of paper, one on each end on it, Sister Arvilly
Lanfear and Miss Henzy a-holdin' it up in the middle like Aaron and Hur
a-holdin' up Moses'ses arms. We advanced and boldly mounted up onto our
two barells, Miss Gowdy and Sister Sypher a-holdin' two chairs stiddy
for us to mount up on.

Every eye in the meetin' house wuz on us. We felt nerved up to do our
best, even if we perished in so doin', and I didn't know some of the
time but we would fall at our two posts. The job wuz so much more
wearin' and awful than we had foreboded, and we had foreboded about it
day and night for weeks and weeks, every one on us.

The extreme hite of the ceilin'; the slipperyness and fragility of the
lengths of paper; the fearful hite and tottlin'ness of the barells; the
dizzeness that swept over us at times, in spite of our marble efforts to
be calm. The dretful achin' and strainin' of our armpits, that bid fair
to loosen 'em from their four sockets. The tremenjous responsibility
that laid onto us to get the paper on smooth and onwrinkled.

It wuz, takin' it altogether, the most fearful and wearisome hour of my
hull life.

Every female in the room held her breath in deathless anxiety (about
thirty breaths). And every eye in the room wuz on us (about fifty-nine
eyes--Miss Shelmadine hain't got but one workin' eye, the other is
glass, though it hain't known, and must be kep).

Wall, it wuz a-goin' on smooth an