The selectmen this
last year ain't what we have had. I hope they've been considerate
about the Bray girls."
"I should have be'n more considerate about fetchin' of you over,"
apologized Mrs. Trimble. "I've got my horse, an' you're lame-footed;
'tis too far for you to come. But time does slip away with busy folks,
an' I forgit a good deal I ought to remember."
"There's nobody more considerate than you be," protested Miss Rebecca
Wright.
Mrs. Trimble made no answer, but took out her whip and gently touched
the sorrel horse, who walked considerably faster, but did not think it
worth while to trot. It was a long, round-about way to the house,
farther down the road and up a lane.
"I never had any opinion of the Bray girls' father, leavin' 'em as he
did," said Mrs. Trimble.
"He was much praised in his time, though there was always some said
his early life hadn't been up to the mark," explained her companion.
"He was a great favorite of our then preacher, the Reverend Daniel
Longbrother. They did a good deal for the parish, but they did it
their own way. Deacon Bray was one that did his part in the repairs
without urging. You know 't was in his time the first repairs was
made, when they got out the old soundin'-board an' them handsome
square pews. It cost an awful sight o' money, too. They hadn't done
payin' up that debt when they set to alter it again an' git the walls
frescoed. My grandmother was one that always spoke her mind right out,
an' she was dreadful opposed to breakin' up the square pews where she'd
always set.
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