t was just a little
leaning to Woman's Rights. She believed in a woman keeping in her own
sphere, and for her part she craved no such notoriety. She had always
noticed, too, that the women who gave themselves up to those things
seemed to lose all regard for their appearance. Now it really was a
duty one owed to their friends, to dress well, and some of those
missionary women were wearing their last year's bonnets; and dresses
of the styles of three or four years back--perfect frights!

She did not see the need of women having a society by themselves
either. Probably they raised just as much money before the ladies got
to making such a fuss about it, it all came out of their husband's
pockets anyway. Her husband always had contributed to Foreign
Missions, and always would probably (it's true he did, a dollar a
year!) and was not that just as well as for her to be bothering her
head about it?

"There!" said Mrs. Williams, one bright afternoon in April, as she
glanced from her window. "There comes that Mrs. Brown. I know what
she's after. She wants me to go to that stupid missionary meeting. I
suppose this is the afternoon for it. I promised her I would go again
some time--sorry I did too. That's just as much sense as some persons
have; think that one can drop everything and go to a missionary
meeting--in the spring of the year, too, when there is so much sewing
to be done;" and she hastily instructed Bridget to tell Mrs. Brown
that she was "engaged." So Mrs. Brown went on her way to the meeting,
and sat in heavenly places, and had her heart stirred with new love
and zeal, while Mrs. Williams sat at home, and worked diligently on a
dress for her young daughter, an elaborate dress of frills, and lace,
and embroidery, and many weary stitches. At the close of the day she
congratulated herself that she had accomplished a fine afternoon's
work.

There were whole seas of sewing to be waded through, Mrs. Williams
said, before she could have any spare afternoons. There was the
dressmaking, all her own dresses to be remodelled after the present
style, besides new ones (when Mrs. Williams had a dressmaker in the
house--to use her own words--she "almost worked herself to death")
then there was all the other sewing. It really was appalling to think
of the amount of ruffling and tucking and side-pleating and puffing
that must be gone through, before the summer wardrobes of herself
and her little daughters would be completed. The