carefully covered from sight; but I knew what caused the lumpiness
under the white cloth. Womanly instinct--which has been declared a
safer guide than man's reasoning--told me that there were going to be
refreshments, and the delightful odor of coffee, which escaped from
the tightly closed boiler on the stove, confirmed my deductions. Then
I noticed that a handbill on the wall spoke freely of it, and declared
that every one was invited to stay, although there did not seem to be
much need of this invitation--certainly there did not seem to be any
climatic reason for any one's leaving any place of shelter; for now
the wind, confirming our worst suspicions of it, began to drive frozen
splinters of sleet against the windows.

By three o'clock the hall was full,--women mostly, for it was still
the busy time for the men on the farms. Many of the women brought
their children with them. Soon after I began to speak, the children
fell asleep, tired out with struggling with wind and weather, and
content to leave the affairs of state with any one who wanted them.
But the women watched me with eager faces which seemed to speak back
to me. The person who drives ten miles against a head wind over bad
roads to hear a lecture is not generally disposed to slumber. The
faces of these women were so bright and interested that, when it was
over, it seemed to me that it had been a conversation where all had
taken part.

The things that I said to them do not matter; they merely served as an
introduction to what came after, when we sat around the stove and the
young girls of the company brought us coffee and sandwiches, and mocha
cake and home-made candy, and these women told me some of the things
that are near their hearts.