" All the fingers went up, and she
proceeded: "I have a good story to tell you; but if one takes her
finger from her mouth, I cannot tell it." Instantly muzzled voices,
all round the church, cried, "Be still, be still, so that we can
hear the story!" Some minutes elapsed, and the four hundred women
were silent. "Once there was an old woman--I did not know her, nor
did my father, and I think my grandfather did not; but he told me--"
Here commenced many inquiries about said grandfather; but again the
fingers were ordered to their places, and their owners told that
they should hear no more about the woman if they talked about the
grandfather. "Now, this woman talked in meeting,--I should think she
must have been a relative of yours, for ours do not talk in
meeting,--and after many reproofs she was forbidden to go to church
any more if she continued to do so. She promised very faithfully;
but, poor woman, she could not be still; then, as soon as she heard
her own voice, she cried out, 'O, I have spoken in meeting. What
shall I do? Why, I keep speaking, and I cannot stop.' Now, you are
very much like this woman, and as I think you cannot stop, I must.
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