so thin and wore out, and her dingy alpaca shawl wuz thin to mendin',
and all darned in spots. We all felt that Mahala had ort to took the
money to get her a new dress.

[Illustration: "SISTER ARVILLY LANFRAR, CANVASSIN' FOR A BOOK."]

But we dasted none on us to say so to her. I wouldn't have been the one to
tell her that for a dollar bill, she seemed to be so happy a-givin' her
part towerds the fair, and for the good of the meetin' house she loved.

Wall, Sister Meachim had earned two dollars above her wages--she is a
millinner by perswasion, and works at a millinner's shop in Jonesville.
She had earned the two dollars by stayin' and workin' nights after the
day's work wuz done.

And Sister Arvilly Lanfear had earned three dollars and twenty-eight
cents by canvassin' for a book. The name of the book wuz: "The Wild,
Wicked, and Warlike Deeds of Man."

And Arvilly said she had took solid comfort a-sellin' it, though she
had to wade through snow and slush half way up to her knees some of the
time, a-trailin' round from house to house a-takin' orders fer it. She
said she loved to sell a book that wuz full of truth from the front page
to the back bindin'.

As for me I wouldn't gin a cent for the book, and I remember we had
some words when she come to our house with it. I told her plain that I
wouldn't buy no book that belittled my companion, or tried to--sez I,
"Arvilly, men are _jest_ as good as wimmen and no better, not a mite
better."