They said they were glad I was come, for they did not know what they were met there for; they ‘s’posed I did.’ I said, I was prepared to explain it to them; but I wished to begin by reading a few verses of Scripture. This they submitted to pretty well; but as soon as it was over, they began talking all round to each other, in by no means particularly soft voices. I knew that, as long as the game of ‘Who can shout loudest’ was to be played, I had no chance; and not wishing to shew my weak side at the first meeting, I remained perfectly silent, and listened, as far as I could, to the observations which were made principally _at me_, but not to me. At last, they seemed rather struck at the isolation of my position, and there was a lull. Then I told them I certainly had not called them together without having something to say to them. I had far too high an estimate of the value of their time. As soon as they caught the idea that some kind of improvement was contemplated in their domestic affairs, they began again. If that was what I was after, I should have had such and such an one, ‘she sarved her children dreadful.’ Then followed no end of narratives of the wickedness of their neighbours; and many of the cruelties that mothers can be guilty of, came out in detail. One woman said, she was ‘always a-trying to do ’em good, and told ’em what they should do; but, instead of doing it, they jist up and sarced at her in a minnit.’ I was the more amused at this last expression, as I thought it rather aptly described my own position just then, though I must, in justice, pause here to remark that, with only one exception, I have never _from the very first received direct impudence from any of them_. When the hour expired, and we rose to depart, I knew that very few who were there would return; but I requested them to send those very wicked neighbours of theirs; and as they themselves seemed impressed with the desirableness of doing so, I left, with the hope that the publicans and sinners might be brought to hear, though the Pharisees would not.