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favor of the hypocrites, and proved yourself unworthy the confidence of the righteous. You are unfit for that heavenly kingdom of justice and truth, which we will establish, with God's help, upon the ruins of political oppression, and in defiance of priestly poltroonery. All true men to the rescue! Farewell." And there lay my course- and there lies every minister's course-between Scylla, unyielding rock of conservatism and Charybdis, wrathful whirlpool of radicalism.

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XIX.

THE SEWING-CIRCLE.

It is five o'clock, and I am about to pay my customary respects to the sewing-circle.

The sewing-circle is an important auxiliary to the Bubbleton society. Its ostensible object is charity, but its earnings are more frequently devoted to the payment of some of the current expenses of the parish. It is governed by an active and vigorous maiden lady, who has attained to "years of discretion," and who shall be known to my readers as Miss Ophelia Pennyweight. It is numerously attended by a class of ladies, who prove their efficiency both with their needles and their tongues; and while they make themselves very useful with one instrument, they become very entertaining with the other thus enlivening the monotony of toil by domestic narratives, mysterious confidences, startling innuendoes, and flashing repartees.

How

I really wonder if any society exists, or could exist, independently of the sewing-circle? would Christian women dispose of their superabundant vitality, without this social and humanitarian

"sphere"? How could you insure that "general diffusion of knowledge," in reference to all matters pertaining to the parish and the minister, or provide for the discussion of all the local interests and personal eccentricities that attract the vigilant eye of woman, without these intellectual assemblies? How could you preserve a healthy circulation of mental life in the head and members of the parish, without this sparkling infusion of wit, gossip, pertness, and pleasantry?

We might as well think of giving up the daily newspaper, and rail against debating clubs and political caucuses, as think of dispensing with sewingcircles, or complain of the large freedom of speech, or liberality of investigation, which they proverbially exhibit.

and practical

Miss Ophelia Pennyweight is not beloved in the Bubbleton circle. She is too austere, sharp, despotic, too old, and angular, and unsocialto make much progress in winning affection anywhere. But she is adapted to her position, and all the ladies recognize her superiority in the management of the circle. They complain of her- they revile her they make themselves merry with her dignified and old-fashioned manners - when she is not present; but they know that the circle would not survive three months, without her rough energy and homely common sense. Moreover, much as they ridicule her at a distance, in her presence they are all more or less awed by a sense of her authority, and the boldest of

them would not like to encounter her deliberate and stony frown, or still less to receive an oral reproof, in her keen and rather shrewish voice.

Not that Miss Ophelia Pennyweight imposed any restrictions upon conversation, so long as it did not interfere with work,- she doubtless knew too much about the disposition of her sex to attempt anything so preposterous,- but she usually maintained on her own part a severe and silent gravity, and saw, with the quick eye of an overseer, when a piece of absorbing gossip was likely to trip the toes of Industry. Nor was the excellent spinster ignorant of her unpopularity; but, like other strong-minded rulers, she derived, from the exercise of power, that consolation which was denied her in the affections of those over whom she presided.

No lady stood in greater dread of Miss Ophelia Pennyweight's authority, than my pretty friend, Miss Lark; and for the reason, I suppose, that no one else incurred her rebuke so often. Miss Pennyweight and Miss Lark may be said to have occupied opposite poles of womanhood. Their characteristics were mutually repugnant. One was practical the other was ideal. Miss Pennyweight's universe was a work-shop; Miss Lark's universe was a kind of fairy-land. One was consecrated to Utility, and her Bible was a book of domestic recipes; the other was consecrated to Poetry, and she had a monthly revelation in the pages of the Ladies' Book.

Miss Pennyweight had bade adieu to Youth, and

cast Love out of the window, while Hope was tolerated only in the antiquated garb of Faith; but Miss Lark had half the treasury of Youth unspent was not sceptical in reference to the affections, or the susceptibilities of men, and owned a large estate in DreamLand, under the fantastical supervision of Expectation and Desire.

One of the rare occasions that drew Miss Pennyweight from her austere silence, at the meetings of the circle, was when Miss Lark chanced to allude to the poets, or indulged in some dreamy utterance of sentiment. Then the spinster would descend from her cold height, with such a terrible and wrathfully-con-temptuous "fiddle-stick," that poor Miss Lark would retire beneath her blushes and her needle-work feeling, I dare say, how hopelessly the avenues of Poetry and Beauty were closed against her barbarous and unsympathizing superior.

It so happens that Miss Lark is the happy person who entertains the sewing-circle, this particular afternoon; and being, herself, by virtue of a good heart and an obliging disposition, something of a favorite in the parish, and the weather presenting no obstacle to neutralize the attractions of her rooms, there is an unusually large company; and when I join the circle, a little after five o'clock, I do not find it wanting in gayety or interest.

First I observe a group of girls, seated together in the door-ward corner of the room-occupying very low seats, which are found favorable to low, confiden

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