nks I to myself, 'That's jest like
old man Bob Crawford.'

"Well, one after another they'd stand up and tell about all the good
works their clubs had done, sendin' books to the mountain people,
tryin' to make better schools for the children, and havin' laws made
to keep women and little children from bein' worked to death in
factories and mills, and I declare, child, it reminded me more of an
old-fashioned experience meetin' than anything I could think of, and
says I to myself: 'Why, Uncle Billy's all wrong. This ain't Sodom and
Gomorrah; it's the comin' of the kingdom of God on earth.' And when
the meetin' was about to break, Henrietta got up and says, 'Grandma,
the ladies want you to make them a speech'; and I jest laughed right
out and says I: 'Why, honey, I can't make a speech. Whoever heard of a
old woman like me makin' a speech?'

"And Henrietta says, 'Well, tell us, grandma, what you've been
thinkin' about us and about our work while you've been sittin' here
listenin' to us talk.' And I says, 'Well, if that's makin' a speech,
I can make one, for I'm always thinkin' somethin', and thinkin' and
talkin' is mighty near kin with me.' Says I, 'One thing I've been
thinkin' is, that I'm like the old timber in the woods--long past my
prime and ready to be cut down, and you all are the young trees
strikin' your roots down and spreadin' your branches and askin' for
room to grow in.' And says I, 'What I think about you ain't likely to
be of much importance. I'm jest a plain, old-fashioned woman. The
only sort o' club I ever belonged to was the Mite Society o' Goshen
church, and the only service I ever did the State was raisin' a
family o' sons and daughters, five sons and four daughters.' Says I,
'There's some folks that thinks women ought to do jest what their
mothers and grandmothers did, but,' says I, 'every generation has its
work. I've done mine and you're doin' yours. And,' says I, 'I look at
you ladies sittin' here in your pretty parlors and your fine clothes,
and back of every one of you I can see your grandmothers and your
great-grandmothers, jest plain hard-workin' women like me. But,' says
I, 'there ain't much difference between you, after all, except the
difference in the clothes and the manners. Your grandmothers traveled
their Wilderness Road, and you're travelin' yours, and one's as hard
as the other. And,' says I, 'if I was in your place, I wouldn't pay a
bit of attention to what the men folks said about me