ybody _might_ easy die
learnin' it!"

"I think the word is Athanasian," ventured the minister's wife.

"Elder Ransom's always plumb full o' doctrine," asserted Miss Brewster,
pursuing the subject. "For my part, I'm glad he preferred Acreville to
our place. He was so busy bein' a minister, he never got round to bein'
a human creeter. When he used to come to sociables and picnics, always
lookin' kind o' like the potato blight, I used to think how complete
he'd be if he had a foldin' pulpit under his coat-tails; they make
foldin' beds nowadays, an' I s'pose they could make foldin' pulpits, if
there was a call."

"Land sakes, I hope there won't be!" exclaimed Mrs. Sargent. "An'
the Elder never said much of anything either, though he was always
preachin'! Now your husband, Mis' Baxter, always has plenty to say after
you think he's all through. There's water in his well when the others is
all dry!"

"But how about the pews?" interrupted Mrs. Burbank. "I think Nancy's
idea is splendid, and I want to see it carried out. We might make it a
picnic, bring our luncheons, and work all together; let every woman in
the congregation come and scrub her own pew."

"Some are too old, others live at too great a distance," and the
minister's wife sighed a little; "indeed, most of those who once owned
the pews or sat in them seem to be dead, or gone away to live in busier
places."

"I've no patience with 'em, gallivantin' over the earth," and here
Lobelia rose and shook the carpet threads from her lap. "I should n't
want to live in a livelier place than Edgewood, seem's though! We wash
and hang out Mondays, iron Tuesdays, cook Wednesdays, clean house and
mend Thursdays and Fridays, bake Saturdays, and go to meetin' Sundays. I
don't hardly see how they can do any more'n that in Chicago!"

"Never mind if we have lost members!" said the indomitable Mrs. Burbank.
"The members we still have left must work all the harder. We'll each
clean our own pew, then take a few of our neighbors', and then hire Mrs.
Simpson to do the wainscoting and floor. Can we scrub Friday and lay the
carpet Saturday? My husband and Deacon Miller can help us at the end of
the week. All in favor manifest it by the usual sign. Contrary-minded?
It is a vote."

There never were any contrary-minded when Mrs. Jere Burbank was in the
chair. Public sentiment in Edgewood was swayed by the Dorcas Society,
but Mrs. Burbank swayed the Dorcases themselves as the wind sways th