Miss Lobelia
Brewster, who had a rooted distrust of anything done by mere man, created
strife by remarking that she could have stopped the leak in the belfry tower
with her red flannel petticoat better than the Milltown man with his
new-fangled rubber sheeting, and that the last shingling could have been more
thoroughly done by a "female infant babe"; whereupon the person criticized
retorted that he wished Miss Lobelia Brewster had a few infant babes to "put
on the job he'd like to see 'em try." Meantime several male members of the
congregation, who at one time or another had sat on the roof during the
hottest of the dog-days to see that shingling operations were conscientiously
and skillfully performed, were very pessimistic as to any satisfactory result
ever being achieved.
"The angle of the roof--what they call the 'pitch'--they say that that's
always been wrong," announced the secretary of the Dorcas in a business
session.
"Is it that kind of pitch that the Bible says you can't touch without being
defiled? If not, I vote that we unshingle the roof and alter the pitch!" This
proposal came from a sister named Maria Sharp, who had valiantly offered the
year before to move the smoky chimney with her own hands, if the "menfolks"
would n't.
Pages:
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152