University of Virginia Library

ENJOYING THEIR CHURCH PRIVILEGES.

IT was after the evening service. Mrs. Coonton and the three Misses Coonton had arrived home. They sat listlessly around the room with their things on. Mr. Coonton was lying on the lounge, asleep. It had been, undoubtedly, an impressive sermon, as the ladies were silent, busy with their thoughts.

"Emmeline," said Mrs. Coonton, suddenly addressing her eldest, "did you see Mrs. Parker when she came in?"

"Yes, ma," replied Emmeline.

"She didn't have that hat on last Sunday, did she?"

"No," said Emmeline. "It is her new hat. I noticed it the moment she went down the aisle; and I says to Sarah, 'What on earth possesses Mrs. Parker to wear such a hat as that?' says I."

"Such a great prancing feather on such a little

[Description: The Bureau Drawer. — Page 117]

hat looked awful ridiculous. I thought I should laugh right out when I saw it," observed Sarah.

"I don't think it looked any worse than Mary Schuyler's, with the flaring red bow at the back," said Amelia.

"I don't see what Mrs. Schuyler can be thinking of, to dress Mary out like that," said Mrs. Coonton with a sigh. "Mary must be older than Sarah; and yet she dresses as if she was a mere child."

"She's nearly a year older than I am," asserted Sarah.

"Did you see how the Widow Marshall was trucked out?" interrupted Emmeline. "She was as gay as a peacock. Mercy! what airs that woman puts on! I would like to have asked her when she's going to bring back that pan of flour;" and Emmeline tittered maliciously.

"She's shining around old McMasters, they say," mentioned Amelia.

"Old McMasters!" ejaculated Mrs. Coonton. "Why, he is old enough to be her father!"

"What difference do you suppose that makes to her?" suggested Emmeline. "She'd marry Methuselah. But I pity him if he gets her. She's a perfect wildcat."

"Say, Em, who was that gentleman with Ellen Byxby?" inquired Amelia.

"That's so," chimed in Sarah with spirit: "who was he?"

"What gentleman?" asked Mrs. Coonton.

"Why, I don't know who it was," explained Emmeline.

"They came in during the prayer. He was a tall fellow, with light hair and chin-whiskers."

"It couldn't have been her cousin John from Brooklyn," suggested Mrs. Coonton.

"Bother, no!" said Sarah pettishly, "He is short, and has brown hair. This gentleman is a stranger here. I wonder where she picked him up."

"She seemed to keep mighty close to him," said Amelia. "But she needn't be scared: no one will take him, unless they are pretty hard pushed. He looks as soft as squash. Did you see him tumbling up his hair with his fingers? I wonder what that big ring cost,—two cents?" and the speaker tittered.

"Well, I'm glad if she's got company," said Mrs. Coonton kindly. "She's made efforts enough to get some one, goodness knows!"

"I should say she had," coincided Emmeline. "She's got on one of them Victoria hats, I see. If I had a drunken father, I'd keep in doors, I think, and not be parading myself in public."

Just then there was a movement on the lounge, and the ladies began to take off their things.

"Hello, folks!" said Mr. Coonton, rising up, and rubbing his eyes. "Is church out?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Coonton with a yawn, which communicated itself to her daughters.

"Did you have a good sermon?"

"Pret-ty good," accompanied by another yawn all round.

"See many good clothes?" was the next query.

"I suppose you think, Mr. Coonton, that that is all your wife and daughters go to church for,—to look at people's clothes," said Mrs. Coonton tartly.

"That's just like pa," said Emmeline, with a toss of her head: "he is always slurring church people."

Pa sloped to bed.