at wimmen wuzn't goin' to be admitted to the
Conference, because it would _weaken_ the Conference."

"Yes," sez my Josiah, a-leanin' up aginst the meetin' house door, and
talkin' pretty loud, for Sister Peedick and me had gone to liftin' round
the big bench by the door, and it wuz fearful heavy, and our minds wuz
excersised as to the best place to put it while we wuz a-cleanin' the
floor.

"You see," sez he, "we feel, we men do, we feel that it would be
weakenin' to the Conference to have wimmen admitted, both on account of
her own lack of strength and also from the fact that every woman you
would admit would keep out a man. And that," sez he (a-leanin' back in
a still easier attitude, almust a luxurious one), "that, you see, would
tend naterally to weakenin' the strength of a church."

[Illustration: "WALL," SEZ I, "MOVE ROUND A LITTLE, WON'T YOU, FOR WE
WANT TO SET THE BENCH."]

"Wall," sez I, a-pantin' hard for breath under my burden, "move round a
little, won't you, for we want to set the bench here while we scrub
under it. And," sez I, a-stoppin' a minute and rubbin' the perspiratin
and sweat offen my face, "Seein' you men are all here, can't you lay
holt and help us move out the benches, so we can clean the floor under
'em? Some of 'em are very hefty," sez I, "and all of us Sisters almost
are a-makin' soap, and we all want to get done here, so we can go home
and bile down; we would dearly love a little help," sez I.

"I would help," sez Josiah in a willin' tone, "I would help in a minute,
if I hadn't got so much work to do at home."

And all the other male bretheren said the same thing--they had got to
git to get home to get to work. (Some on 'em wanted to play checkers,
and I knew it.)

But some on 'em did have lots of work on their hands, I couldn't dispute
it.

CHAPTER XXI.

Why, Deacon Henzy, besides all his cares about the buzz saw mill, and
his farm 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 folk