pressed hard she said she hadn't "the least idee where Miss
Petingill wuz."

Jest think on 't once -- and there she wuz herself. The idee!

Wall, the minute I sot down before I begun my business or
anything, Miss Petingill took me to do about puttin' in Miss
Bibbins President of our Missionary Society for the Relief of
Indignent Heathens.

The Bibbins'es are good, very good, but poor.

Says Miss Petingill: "It seems to me as if there might be some
other woman put in, that would have had more influence on the
Church."

Says I, "Haint Miss Bibbins a good Christian sister, and a great
worker?"

"Why yes, she wuz good, good in her place. But," she said, "the
Petingills hadn't never associated with the Bibbins'es."

And I asked her if she s'posed that would make any difference with
the heathen; if the heathen would be apt to think less of Miss
Bibbins because she hadn't associated with the Petingills?

And she said, she didn't s'pose "the heathens would ever know it;
it might make some difference to 'em if they did," she thought,
"for it couldn't be denied," she said, "that Miss Bibbins did not
move in the first circles of Jonesville."