Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/53

 and gave him a second call, I always thought you had better have left it where it was, in the hands of your elders. I don't like the man. I won't say he's a bad man, but I don't say he's a good one; and I, for one, won't go to meeting again while those saucy, impudent girls are allowed to interrupt the worship of the Lord. If it is not silly, it is wicked; and if it is not wicked, it is silly; and, any way, I won't go to hear it, I know.'

"Oh, grandmother, I could not but laugh to hear how she did run on; but Elizabeth, who sat next to me, pulled my sleeve, and whispered me, 'I do wish mother would not talk so; I feel sure she will get into trouble if she does.'

"'How so?' says I.

"'Why,' she says, 'this is no time to be making enemies; and somebody may repeat what she says.'

"'Well,' said I, 'there's nobody here but your own family—and me.'

"'Oh! I did not mean, the present company,' says she, laughing; 'but it is just so always. Mother is a dear, good woman as ever lived—she would not hurt a fly; but