Litchfield enquirer., 1878-08-22

That unknown portion which would have been ours to give if we had had no fair, but gone about and begged, in a quiet, dignifed way from those able and willing to aid our worthy object, l present you with pride, as the result of our honorable efforts. Theother unknown, and fear much larger, portion which we have won nthrough-disobedience to both physical and moral laws, present you with shame, as the result of our dishonorable labors. 1 pray you, gentlemen, to praise us no more! We are yet your superiors if you can truthfully commend us for acts which we ourselves dispise."
 Well, 1 tell you, 1 never heard so still si- lence as there was in that hall while that brave woman was speaking. Even the boys. who had crowded in because we put the admission down so low the last night, kept as quiet as could be.
 You may imagine there was a sensation though! Some of the women were crying and some were just as angry with Mrs. Les ley as they could be. Mrs. Gray had on her most naughty and disgusted look. believe she would have left the hall if it had not been her own brothers wife, and she knew he never would forgive her if she did.
 But I'll tell you how l felt about it. I thought we were all real mean to sit still and let our President take on her own shoulders what she considered so wrong, when she wasn't responsible for it in the least, and had tried in every way to prevent it.
 And, if you will believe it, I, who never made speech in my life, could not if my life depended on it-I just rushed forward in the dead, awful pause that followed Mrs. Lesley's last words, and didn't stop to say Ladies and gentlemen, Or MT. President or anything, but broke out just as if had been ali alone in our parlor with John and the. canary bird, and said: Pm not going to let our president horcn1f in, hlsa fo- p1,of Sc,o3f hnr fault. She has done everything she could all the way along to make the rest of us do right. know she would have resigned her effice when she saw how things were going if it had not seemed unkind to leave us to do what we had planned for. her share. I believe just as she does about the gambling part, and 1 don't know but I do all the rest. But was more anxious to make money than to make it in the most just and honest way. And that's the way with all of us ex- cept Mrs. Lesley. Now we are all through, 1 am as much ashamed of some things as she is. But nobody need blame her for anything that has gone wrong.'
 You ought to have heard the cheering as I sat down. l was frightened almost into hyster- ics after found out that really had spoken in public. John whispered, "You're a brave little cat'
 didn't care to look at him, for was just as near crying as could be. And I couldn't help thinking what spectacle should make of myself, sobbing on the platform till my eyes and nose were red and swollen, and with noth- ing but my best lace pocket handkerchief. I never could cry as the heroines in novels do and look interesting all tffe while. My tears always make me look like boiled lobster.
 We'll, the end of it was, MT. Lesley, whose place it was to respond, and who hadn't known it seems, what his wife was going to say, couldn't get up any kindof speeGh He just said he could not help agreeing with the Pres ident of the Ladies Auxiliary in most of her estimate of the influence of the fair, but he hoped the ladies wouldn't blame themselves too severely for a fault which they were led into by their zeal for the cause, and which had been so frankly confessed
 Then we had kind of still breaking up. Mrs. Gray left the very first one she couldn't trust herself to speak to her dear sister, I know.
 Going home, John said, What a magnifi- cent woman that Mrs. Lesley is, Kitty But l should think it would be a great deal like climbing up Mt. Washington all the time to have her for wife, l would rather have little Kitty like you for steady diet
 Yes, said. John, 1 know you would and l am very glad of that. But feel like very insignificant valley beside her.
 Never mind Fuss, Love is of the valley, quoted John.
 Tired as I was had to laugh at that. For John is so matter of fact and prosy that nev- CT have been able to make him remember any poem but Tennyson's Princess and the on- ly reason he has kept that in mind enough to quote from it is because I read it to him that summer when newell the year before we were married -Su1tIHU 4 fteyfOOn