never knew that I was there, but they were sitting side by side, and
Harry's arm was around the girl's waist, and her head was on his
shoulder, and they were looking at each other as if they saw angels,
and I thought to myself that, whether it was due to hygienic bread or
pie, they were in love--and what would Mrs. H. Boardman Jameson and
Caroline Liscom say?



III

MRS. JAMESON IMPROVES US


It was some time before we really understood that we were to be
improved. We might have suspected it from the episode of the hygienic
biscuits at the picnic, but we did not. We were not fairly aware of
it until the Ladies' Sewing Circle met one afternoon with Mrs. Sim
White, the president, the first week in July.

It was a very hot afternoon, and I doubt if we should have had the
meeting that day had it not been that we were anxious to get off
a barrel as soon as possible to a missionary in Minnesota. The
missionary had seven children, the youngest only six weeks old, and
they were really suffering. Flora Clark did say that if it were as
hot in Minnesota as it was in Linnville she would not thank anybody
to send her clothes; she would be thankful for the excuse of poverty
to go without them. But Mrs. Sim White would not hear to having the
meeting put off; she said that a cyclone might come up any minute in
Minnesota and cool the air, and then think of all those poor children