n' of it from day to day and
from hour to hour.

He would nearly exhaust the subject at home, and then he would tackle
the wimmen on it at the Methodist Meetin' House, while we Methodist
wimmen wuz to work.

After leavin' me to the meetin' house, Josiah would go on to the
post-office for his daily _World_, and then he would stop on his way
back to give us female wimmen the latest news from the Conference, and
give us his idees on't.

[Illustration: "HE NEVER HAD TIME TO HELP."]

And sometimes he would fairly harrow us to the very bone, with his
dretful imaginins and fears that wimmen would be allowed to overdo
herself, and ruin her health, and strain her mind, by bein' permitted to
set!

Why Submit Tewksbury, and some of the other weaker sisters, would look
fairly wild-eyed for some time after he would go.

He never could stay long. Sometimes we would beset him to stay and do
some little job for us, to help us along with our work, such as liftin'
somethin' or movin' some bench, or the pulpit, or somethin'.

But he never had the time; he always had to hasten home to get to work.
He wuz in a great hurry with his spring's work, and full of care about
that buzz saw mill.

And that wuz how it wuz with every man in the meetin' house that wuz
able to work any. They wuz all in a hurry with their spring's work, and
their buzz saws, and their inventions, and their agencys, etc., etc.,
etc.

And that wuz the reason why we wimmen wuz havin' such a hard job on the
meetin' house.

CHAPTER XVII.

You see the way on't wuz: we had to do sumthin' to raise the minister's
salary, which wuz most half a year behindhand, to say nothin' of the
ensuin' year a-comin'. And as I have hinted at before but hain't gi'n
petickulers, the men in the meetin' house had all gi'n out, and said
they had gi'n every cent they could, and they couldn't and they wouldn't
do any more, any way.

As I have said more formally, there wuz a hardness arozen amongst the
male brethern.

Deacon Peedick thought he had gi'n more than his part in proportion, and
come right out plain and said so.

And Deacon Bobbet said "he wuzn't the man to stand it to be told right
to his face that he hadn't done his share," and he said "he wuzn't the
man either, to be hinted at from the pulpit about things." I don't
believe he wuz hinted at, and Sister Bobbet don't And she felt like
death to have him so riz up in his mind, and act so. I know what the
tex' wuz;