ow, says I to myself, I've got something to
talk about at sewing society to-morrow. It'll make 'em open their
eyes, too, I guess, so I read it all over again, to be sure and have
it at my tongue's end. Well, I went to sewing society, and when
there was a kind of a lull in talk, I began to tell three or four
that sat around me, all about that wonderful story that I'd been
reading. Do you believe it, they just poked fun at my story, and
said, 'of course 'twa'n't true, and we couldn't believe half we read
in the papers, and it would tura out like the Cardiff giant, most
likely.' I was going on to tell how he brought, out the curiosities,
and ever so many people saw them, and of course it was true; but la!
one wanted the thread, another the scissors, and another called out,
'Mrs. Peterson, do you overcast your seams or fell 'em?' Then Mrs.
Baker said, 'Why, Melia Parsons, you're making that little pair of
pants upside down, then they all hollered and yelled at Melia, and I
never tried to tell anything more about Dr. What-yer-call-him and his
cities; might just as well try to talk in a hornets' nest."

This speech produced so much merriment that the chairman playfully
called Mrs. Peterson to order, and the talk went on. Some thought a
course of history was "just the thing," in short, there were as many
different plans and opinions as there were ladies, it began to look
very much as if no decision could ever be reached.

"I hope," said Mrs. Lewis, "that I shall not be thought persistent or
officious if I say a few more words. You know I am fond of reading,
there was a time when I read everything, now I am turning away from
it all, to the blessed Bible. While I would not disparage liberal
culture, nor the reading that conduces to it, I think the time has
come when we cannot remain ignorant of the Bible and be guiltless.
Some people feel mortified if they cannot tell just where every line
of poetry that happens to be quoted can be found, but who thinks of
being ashamed because they cannot tell the author of the matchless
poems in the Old Testament? I do think there are no poems like
Isaiah's and Jeremiah's and the Psalms. For imagery and pathos and
sweetness all other poems are tame in comparison. Do we want works of
power? He says, 'My word is as the fire and the hammer.' Is it
tragedy that our souls delight in? There is the divine tragedy: 'But
He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
iniquities.... He