Discipline, and all the Bishops wuz in favor of it, and
always had been. They said it wuz right accordin' to the Articles. But
when it come to the hard and arjuous duties of drawin' salleries with
'em, or settin' up on Conferences with 'em, why there a line had to
be drawed, wimmen must not be permitted to strain herself in no such
ways--nor resk the tender delicacy of her nature, by settin' in a
meetin' house as a delegate by the side of a man once a year. It wuz too
resky. But we could lay holt and work with 'em in public, or in private,
which we felt wuz indeed a privelege, for the interests of the Methodist
meetin' house wuz dear to our hearts, and so wuz our pardners'
approvals--and they wuz all on 'em unanimus on this pint--we could
_work_ all we wanted to.

So we had laid holt and worked right along with the men from day to day,
with their full and free consents, and a little help from 'em, till we
had got the work partly done. We had got the little Sabbath-school room
painted and papered, and the cushions of the main room new covered, and
we had engaged to have it frescoed, but the frescoer had turned out to
be a perfect fraud, and, of all the lookin' things, that meetin' house
wuz about the worst. The plaster, or whatever it wuz he had put on, had
to be all scraped off before it could be papered, the paper wuz bought,
and the scrapin' had begun.

[Illustration: "APPEARIN' IN PUBLIC."]

The young male and female church members had give a public concert
together, and raised enough money to get the paper--it wuz very nice,
and fifty cents a roll (double roll). These young females appearin' in
public for this purpose wuz very agreeable to the hull meetin' house,
and wuz right accordin' to the rules of the Methodist Meetin' House, for
I remember I asked about it when the question first come up about
sendin' female delegates to the Conference, and all the male members of
our meetin' house wuz so horrified at the idee.

I sez, "I'll bet there wouldn't one of the delegates yell half so loud
es she that wuz Mahala Gowdey at the concert. Her voice is a sulferino
of the very keenest edge and highest tone, and she puts in sights and
sights of quavers."

But they all said that wuz a _very_ different thing.

And sez I, "How different? She wuz a yellin' in public for the good
of the Methodist Meetin' House (it wuz her voice that drawed the big
congregatin, we all know). And them wimmen delegates would only have to
'y