"After this Joe and I are going to call it the Minneboohoo." The women of the little village had met at a quilting party at ten o'clock with Mrs.Martin Waddell.

There Sarah had had a seat at the frame and heard all the gossip of the countryside.

The nimble fingered Ann Rutledge--a daughter of the tavern folk--had sat beside her.

Ann was a slender, good-looking girl of seventeen with blue eyes and a rich crown of auburn hair and a fair skin well browned by the sunlight.

She was the most dexterous needle worker in New Salem.