s terrible free-spoken. And when Deacon Petty said that,
she jest squared herself like she intended to stand there till
judgment day, and says she, 'The 'Postle Paul has been dead ruther too
long for me to be afraid of him. And I never heard of him app'intin'
Deacon Petty to represent him in this church. If the 'Postle Paul
don't like what I'm sayin', let him rise up from his grave in
Corinthians or Ephesians, or wherever he's buried, and say so. I've
got a message from the Lord to the men folks of this church, and I'm
goin' to deliver it, Paul or no Paul,' says she. 'And as for you,
Silas Petty, I ain't forgot the time I dropped in to see Maria one
Saturday night and found her washin' out her flannel petticoat and
dryin' it before the fire. And every time I've had to hear you lead in
prayer since then I've said to myself, "Lord, how high can a man's
prayers rise toward heaven when his wife ain't got but one flannel
skirt to her name? No higher than the back of his pew, if you'll let
me tell it." I knew jest how it was,' said Sally Ann, 'as well as if
Maria'd told me. She'd been havin' the milk and butter money from the
old roan cow she'd raised from a little heifer, and jest because feed
was scarce, you'd sold her off before Maria had money enough to buy
her winter flannels. I can give my experience, can I? Well, that's
jest what I'm a-doin',' says she; 'and while I'm about it,' says she,
'I'll give in some experience for 'Lizabeth and Maria and the rest of
the women who, betwixt their husbands an' the 'Postle Paul, have about
lost all the gumption and grit that the Lord started them out with. If
the 'Postle Paul,' says she, 'has got anything to say about a woman
workin' like a slave for twenty-five years and then havin' to set up
an' wash out her clothes Saturday night, so's she can go to church
clean Sunday mornin', I'd like to hear it. But don't you dare to say
anything to me about keepin' silence in the church. There was times
when Paul says he didn't know whether he had the Spirit of God or not,
and I'm certain that when he wrote that text he wasn't any more
inspired than you are, Silas Petty, when you tell Maria to shut her
mouth.'

"Job Taylor was settin' right in front of Deacon Petty, and I reckon
he thought his time was comin' next; so he gets up, easy-like, with
his red bandanna to his mouth, and starts out. But Sally Ann headed
him off before he'd gone six steps, and says she, 'There ain't
anything the mat