"Folks with my difficulty suffer for years." Mary looked inquiringly at Billy, and a smile but little according with his mother's seeming distress parted his lips as he whispered, "She was reading yesterday about a woman that had been bed-ridden with a spinal difficulty, and now she declares that she too 'has got a spine in her back,' though I fancy she would be in a pretty predicament without one.

But where did you get that fright of a bonnet ?" he continued.

"It's like looking down a narrow lane to see your face." Mary knew that Billy was very observing of dress, and she blushed painfully as she replied, that Mrs.Campbell gave it to her.
"Well, she ought to be ashamed," said he, "with all her money to give you a corn-basket of a thing like that.

Ella doesn't wear such a one, I can tell you." Just then the first bell rang, and Sal, who had mischievously recommended a mustard poultice, as being the most likely to draw Mrs.
Bender's spine to a head, started to go saying, "she wanted to be there in season, so as to see the folks come in." Accordingly they again set forward, attracting more attention, and causing more remarks, than any two who had passed through Chicopee for a long time.

On reaching the church, Sal requested the sexton to give her a seat which would command a view of the greater part of the congregation, and he accordingly led them to the farthest extremity of one of the side galleries.