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Mrs. Stout and her maiden sister. Miss Emeline Flush, particularly the latter, and Mrs. Stout's two daughters, Judith and Hope, were devotedly attached to this benevolent association. Not unfrequently they all went out and passed the afternoon session, and some of them the evening, let the meeting be where it might, industriously plying the needle, wielding the scissors, and imparting as well as receiving information on the great point of Christian benevolence.

It must be confessed that their aim and result were both alike good, and that the ladies generally were governed by the highest considerations in their enterprise. If they committed an error, it was in shooting beyond a point of necessity, and rendering help in one case to the neglect of another. But the Stouts, the Haddocks, the Phillips, the Boutwells, the Hayes, the Smiths, the Newcombes, the Scranneys, the Shires, and the Lincolns, were most of them regarded as sensible and benevolent minded families, some of the ladies living daily to do good to their fellow-men, with some perhaps trifling dissimilarity of views as to the mode. On the Wednesday we have specified, the society met at Esq. Ben. Stout's. Mrs. Haddock and her daughters arrived a little later than usual, on account of driving round by the poor-house on their way, to make particular inquiries about the winter clothing of the paupers. The room was full of ladies, and they were, as usual at these sessions, chatty enough.

Every body seemed very happy to see Mrs. Haddock and her daughters. They were indeed of great service in the society, Mrs. Haddock being one of the main officers, and a sort of right arm to the enterprise, while Frances, her eldest daughter, was treasurer and secretary of the society.

So the ladies fluttered around them on their arrival, and protested that they should have felt lonesome, and the work would not have been half done without them. Mrs. Stout said she never felt reconciled to it if Mrs. Haddock was absent when the ladies held their meeting, especially if it was at her house. And Mrs. Haddock never thought for a moment of not coming, she regretted being late, but was unavoidably detained. Jane Phillips, one of the sweetest girls in Crampton, folded her friend Frances Haddock in her arms, and in a snug corner of the room they plied their needles and chatted together for a long time.

Thirty or forty ladies, met together in a sewing circle, do a good deal of work. They also "work off" a large amount of conversation, and it is pleasing to be among them and to listen to the talk, if you cannot add to it.

"I am told," said Miss Flush, "that after we complete our present work, and fill this box for the missionaries, Mr. Longwell, the merchant, wishes the society to engage to sew for him the next three months."

"Why, Miss Flush!" exclaimed several voices.

"Is it possible!"

"Can it be true?" inquired others at the same time. "Yes," said Miss Flush, "he applied to me this morning, and said he had a contract with a city jobber for three hundred summer coats, pants, and vests, for the spring trade, and five hundred shirts and bosoms."

"Did you ever see such luck!" exclaimed several.

"It is most too good to be true," said others.

"It shows us," said Mrs. Haddock, "that if we are willing to busy ourselves to do good, we shall not be deprived of the opportunity."

"How true, Mrs. Haddock," replied Mrs. Ben. Stout.

"I wish we could go right about it," said one.

"How much will Mr. Longwell be willing to pay us for the work?" inquired Mrs. Phillips.

"Of course that will depend on the style of the sewing, and on the quality and cut of the garments. He will give us twenty-five cents each for shirts made in good style, with bosoms and wristbands, the work all. cut out; and twenty-five cents each for thin pants and vests cut, and fifty cents for best coats."

The ladies all stopped their work and listened during this recital, and resumed it again, with sundry exclamations; as Miss Flush finished speaking.

"It is a good deal of money, doubtless," said old Mrs. Hayes, looking over her spectacles, and furrowing up her forehead, as she smiled round the room; "but, ladies, when I was young, we never made a coat for less than a dollar, nor pants for less than fifty cents; while every body gave us fifty cents to make a shirt."

"Well, nobody gives now as much as formerly, you know, Mrs. Hayes," pleasantly put in Mrs. Stout. "Besides, the cloth is different, and the sewing is different. We hurry off work now-a-days; in those old times, it was a week's work to earn a dollar."

Mrs. Hayes said the times were different, she knew.

The ladies thought they could make something by Mr. Longwell's job, although the prices were low. It was a great relief to have the work all cut and ready for them; and besides, every one would know before hand just what work was to be undertaken.

"How much longer will it take us, Miss Flush," inquired Mrs. Haddock, "to finish our present work for the missionaries?"