Samantha Among the Brethren | Page 2

while wimmen have done all this work for the Meetin' House, the
Meetin' House ort to be honorable and do well by her."
"Wall, hain't _he_?" sez Josiah.
"No, she hain't," sez I.
"Wall, what petickuler fault do you find? What has he done lately to
rile you up?"
Sez I, "She wuz in the wrong on't in not lettin' wimmen set on the
Conference."
"Wall, I say he wuz right," sez Josiah. "He knew, and I knew, that
wimmen wuzn't strong enough to set."
"Why," sez I, "it don't take so much strength to set as it duz to stand up.
And after workin' as hard as wimmen have for the Meetin' House, she
ort to have the priveledge of settin'. And I am goin' to write out jest
what I think about it."
"Wall," sez Josiah, as he started for the barn with the hen feed, "don't
be too severe with the Meetin' House."
And then, after he went out, he opened the door agin and stuck his head
in and sez:
"Don't be too hard on _him_"
And then he shet the door quick, before I could say a word. But good
land! I didn't care. I knew I could say what I wanted to with my faithful
pen--and I am bound to say it.
JOSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE, Bonny View, near Adams, New York, Oct.
14th, 1890.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

CHAPTER XXIII

CHAPTER XXIV

CHAPTER XXV

CHAPTER XXVI

CHAPTER XXVII

CHAPTER XXVIII
_Publishers' Appendix_

CHAPTER I.
When I first heard that wimmen wuz goin' to make a effort to set on a
Conference, it wuz on a Wednesday, as I remember well. For my
companion, Josiah Allen, had drove over to Loontown in a Democrat
and in a great hurry, to meet two men who wanted him to go into a
speculation with 'em.

And it wuz kinder curious to meditate on it, that they wuz all deacons,
every one on 'em. Three on 'em wuz Baptis'es, and two on 'em had
jined our meetin' house, deacons, and the old name clung to 'em--we
spoze because they wuz such good, stiddy men, and looked up to.
Take 'em all together there wuz five deacons. The two foreign deacons
from 'way beyond Jonesville, Deacon Keeler and Deacon Huffer, and
our own three Jonesvillians--Deacon Henzy, Deacon Sypher, and my
own particular Deacon, Josiah Allen.
It wuz a wild and hazardous skeme that them two foreign deacons wuz
a-proposin', and I wuz strongly in favor of givin' 'em a negative answer;
but Josiah wuz fairly crazy with the idee, and so wuz Deacon Henzy
and Deacon Sypher (their wives told me how they felt).
The idee was to build a buzz saw mill on the creek that runs through
Jonesville, and have branches of it extend into Zoar, Loontown, and
other more adjacent townships (the same creek runs through 'em all).
As near as I could get it into my head, there wuz to be a buzz saw mill
apiece for the five deacons--each one of 'em to overlook their own
particular buzz saw--but the money comin' from all on 'em to be
divided up equal among the five deacons.
[Illustration: "A WILD AND HAZARDOUS SKEME."]
They thought there wuz lots of money in the idee. But I wuz very set
against it from the first. It seemed to me that to have buzz saws
a-permeatin' the atmosphere, as you may say, for so wide a space,
would make too much of a confusion and noise, to say nothin' of the
jarin' that would take place and ensue. I felt more and more, as I
meditated on the subject, that a buzz saw, although estimable in itself,
yet it wuz not a spear in which a religious deacon could withdraw from
the world, and ponder on the great questions pertainin' to his own and
the world's salvation.
I felt it wuz not a spear that he could revolve round in and keep that
apartness from this world and nearness to the other, that I felt that

deacons ought to cultivate.
But my idees wuz frowned at by every man in Jonesville, when I
ventured to promulgate 'em. They all said, "The better the man, the
better the deed."
They said, "The better the man wuz, the better the buzz saw he would
be likely to run." The fact wuz, they needed some buzz saw mills bad,