d Mrs. Salter. "They don't think as we hev' no fashions,
up here in the mountains."

"Their fashions is ridiculous!" said Mrs. Flandin. "Do you think it's
becomin', Mr. Masters, for Christian women to go and make sights of
themselves?"

"In what way, Mrs. Flandin?"

"Why, goodness! you've seen 'em. Describin's impossible. Euphemie
Knowlton, she came into church last Sabbath three yards in extent, ef
she was a foot. It beat me, how she was goin' to get in. Why, there
warn't room for but three of 'em in the slip, and it took 'em somethin'
like half an hour to get fixed in their places. I declare I was
ashamed, and I had to look, for all."

"So had I," assented Miss Carpenter. "I couldn't fairly keep my eyes
off of 'em."

"And I'm certain she couldn't go agin the wind, with her bonnet; it
stuck just right up from her face, and ended in a pint, and she had a
hull garden in the brim of it, _I_ think ministers had ought to preach
about such doin's."

"And you don't know what ministers are good for if they don't?" said
Mr. Masters.

"Did _you_ ever see a minister that could get the better of 'em?" said
Mrs. Boddington. "'Cos, if you did, I would like to go and sit under
his preachin' a spell, and see what he could do for me."

"Does that express the mind of Pleasant Valley generally?" asked the
minister, and gravely this time.

"La! we ain't worse than other folks," said Mrs. Salter. "There's no
harm in dressin' one's self smart now and then, is there? And we want
to know how, to be sure."

"I hope you don't think Euphemie Knowlton knows how? 'Tain't a quarter
as becomin' as the way we dress in Pleasant Valley. There ain't the
least bit of prettiness or gracefulness in a woman's bein' three yards
round; anyhow we don't think so when it's nature." So Mrs. Salter.

"What do you think o' lettin' your hair down over the shoulders, as if
you were goin' to comb it?" said Mrs. Boddington; "and goin' to church
so?"

"But how ever _did_ she make it stand out as it did," asked Miss
Carpenter. "It was just like spun glass, nothin' smooth or quiet about
it. Such a yellow mop I never did see. And it warn't a child neither.
Who is she anyhow?"

"Not she. It is a grown woman," said Mrs. Flandin; "and she looked like
a wild savage. Don't the minister agree with me, that it ain't becomin'
for Christian women to do such things?"

It was with a smile and a sigh that the minister answered. "Where are
you going to draw the line