, were to meet once a fortnight at the homes of
the members. It was admitted that they could not expect to affect many
improvements so late in the season; but they meant to plan the next
summer's campaign, collect and discuss ideas, write and read papers,
and, as Anne said, educate the public sentiment generally.

There was some disapproval, of course, and . . . which the Improvers felt
much more keenly . . . a good deal of ridicule. Mr. Elisha Wright was
reported to have said that a more appropriate name for the organization
would be Courting Club. Mrs. Hiram Sloane declared she had heard the
Improvers meant to plough up all the roadsides and set them out with
geraniums. Mr. Levi Boulter warned his neighbors that the Improvers
would insist that everybody pull down his house and rebuild it after
plans approved by the society. Mr. James Spencer sent them word that he
wished they would kindly shovel down the church hill. Eben Wright told
Anne that he wished the Improvers could induce old Josiah Sloane to
keep his whiskers trimmed. Mr. Lawrence Bell said he would whitewash
his barns if nothing else would please them but he would NOT hang lace
curtains in the cowstable windows. Mr. Major Spencer asked Clifton
Sloane, an Improver who drove the milk to the Carmody cheese factory,
if it was true that everybody would have to have his milk-stand
hand-painted next summer and keep an embroidered centerpiece on it.

In spite of . . . or perhaps, human nature being what it is, because of
. . . this, the Society went gamely to work at the only improvement they
could hope to bring about that fall. At the second meeting, in the Barry
parlor, Oliver Sloane moved that they start a subscription to re-shingle
and paint the hall; Julia Bell seconded it, with an uneasy feeling that
she was doing something not exactly ladylike. Gilbert put the motion,
it was carried unanimously, and Anne gravely recorded it in her minutes.
The next thing was to appoint a committee, and Gertie Pye, determined
not to let Julia Bell carry off all the laurels, boldly moved that Miss
Jane Andrews be chairman of said committee. This motion being also duly
seconded and carried, Jane returned the compliment by appointing Gertie
on the committee, along with Gilbert, Anne, Diana, and Fred Wright. The
committee chose their routes in private conclave. Anne and Diana were
told off for the Newbridge road, Gilbert and Fred for the White Sands
road, and Jane and Gertie for t