arm work, had bought a steam threshin' machine that made him sights
of work. It was a good machine. But it wuz fairly skairful to see it
a-steamin' and a-blowin' right along the streets of Jonesville without
the sign of a horse or ox or anything nigh it to draw it. A-puffin' out
the steam, and a-tearin' right along, that awful lookin' that it skairt
she that wuz Celestine Bobbet most into fits.

She lived in a back place where such machines wuz unknown, and she had
come home to her father's on a visit, and wuz goin' over to visit some
of his folks that day, over to Loontown.

And she wuz a-travellin' along peacible, with her father's old mair, and
a-leanin' back in the buggy a readin' a article her father had sent over
by her to Deacon Widrig, a witherin' article about female Deaconesses,
and the stern necessity of settin' 'em apart and sanctifyen' 'em to this
one work--deacon work--and how they mustn't marry, or tackle any other
hard jobs whatsumever, or break off into any other enterprize, only jest
plain deacon work.

It wuz a very flowery article. And she wuz enjoyin' of it first rate,
and a-thinkin', for she is a little timid and easily skairt, and the
piece had convinced her--

She wuz jest a-thinkin' how dretful it would be if sum female deaconess
should ever venter into some other branch of business, and what would
be apt to become of her if she did. She hated to think of what her doom
would most likely be, bein' tender hearted.

[Illustration: "SHE SEE THIS WILD AND SKAIRFUL MACHINE APPROACHIN'."]

When lo, and behold! jest as she wuz a-thinkin' these thoughts, she see
this wild and skairful machine approachin', and Deacon Henzy a-standin'
up on top of it a-drivin'. He looked wild and excited, bein' very
tickled to think that he had threshed more with his machine, by twenty
bushels, than Deacon Petengill had with his. There was a bet upon these
two deacons, so it wuz spozed, and he wuz a-hastenin' to the next place
where he wuz to be setup, so's to lose no time, and he was kinder
hollerin'.

And the wind took his gray hair back, and his long side whiskers, and
kinder stood 'em out, and the skirts of his frock the same.

His mean wuz wild.

And it wuz more than Celestine's old mair and she herself could bear;
she cramped right round in the road (the mair did) and set sail back to
old Bobbet'ses, and that great concern a-puffin' and a-steamin' along
after 'em.

And by the time that she that wuz Celes