Divers Women | Page 6

of hers is getting a little too
fast for comfort."
"Is that so?" Mr. Harrison asked, looking up from his turkey bone.
"Yes, sir; his loss at cards was tremendously heavy last week; would
have broken a less solid man. He had been drinking when he played
last, and made horridly flat moves."
"Disgraceful!" murmured Mr. Harrison; and then he took another sip of
his home-made wine.
There were homes representing this same church that were not so
stylish, or fashionable, or wealthy. Mrs. Brower and her daughter Jenny
had to lay aside their best dresses, and all the array of Sunday toilet,
which represented their very best, and repair to the kitchen to cook their
own Sunday dinners. "Was it a thoughtful dwelling upon such verses of
Scripture as had been presented that morning which made the Sunday
dinner the most elaborate, the most carefully prepared, and more
general in its variety, than any other dinner in the week? Their
breakfast hour was late, and, by putting the dinner hour at half-past
three, it gave them time to be elaborate, according to their definition of
that word. Not being cumbered with hired help, mother and daughter
could have confidential Sabbath conversations with each other as they
worked. So while Mrs. Brower carefully washed and stuffed the two
plump chickens, Jennie prepared squash, and turnip, and potatoes for

cooking, planning meanwhile for the hot apple sauce, and a side dish or
two for dessert, and the two talked.
"Well, did you get an invitation?" the mother asked, and the tone of
suppressed motherly anxiety showed that the subject was one of
importance. Did she mean an invitation to the great feast which is to be
held when they sit down to celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb,
and which this holy Sabbath day was given to help one prepare for? No,
on second thought it could not have been that; for, after listening to the
morning sermon no thought of anxiety could have mingled with that
question. Assuredly Jennie was invited--nay, urged, entreated; the only
point of Anxiety could have been--would she accept? But it was
another place that filled the minds of both mother and daughter.
"Indeed I did." There was glee in Miss Jennie's voice. "I thought I
wasn't going to. She went right by me and asked people right and left,
never once looking at me. But she came away back after she had gone
into the hall, and came over to my seat and whispered that she had been
looking for me all the way out, but had missed me. She said I must be
sure to come, for she depended on us young people to help make the
affair less ceremonious. Don't you think, Emma wasn't invited at all,
and I don't believe she will be; almost everyone has been now. Emma
was so sure of her invitation, because she was such a friend of Lu
Jamison's. She thought she would get cards to the wedding, you know;
and when they didn't come she felt sure of the reception. She has been
holding her head wonderfully high all the week about it, and now she is
left out and I am in. Mother, isn't that rich?"
Mrs. Brower plumped her chickens into the oven, and wiped the flour
from her cheek and sighed.
"There will be no end of fuss in getting you ready, and expense too.
What are you going to wear, anyway?"
"Mother," said Jennie, impressively, turning away from her squash to
get a view of her mother's face, "I ought to have a new dress for this
party. I haven't anything fit to be seen. It is months since I have had a
new one; and everybody is sick of my old blue dress; I'm sure I am."

"It is entirely out of the question," Mrs. Brower said, irritably, "and you
know it is. I wonder at your even thinking of such a thing, and we so
many bills to pay; and there's that pew-rent hasn't been paid in so long
that I'm ashamed to go to church."
"I wish the pew-rent was in Jericho, and the pew, too!" was Miss
Jennie's spirited answer. "I should think churches ought to be free, if
nothing else is. It is a great religion, selling pews so high that poor
people can't go to church. If I had thought I couldn't have a new dress I
should have declined the invitation at once. I did think it was time for
me to have something decent; and I make my own clothes, too, which
is more than most any other girls do. I saw a way to make it this
morning. I studied Miss Harvey's dress all the while we were standing.
I could make trimming precisely