Miriam Berry Whitcher Speaks Her Mind [47] but I fear that William will have trouble. He says that he is determined to face it out & then quit, if he can get a place anywhere else. There are but very few persons here who do not esteem & respect him. They are the row- deying, dancing, cardplaying part of the congregation, whose lives are spent in a round of foolish, ridiculous gaiety, who care for nothing but show & folly. They cannot bear the high standard of conduct which he holds up to them. . . . There is nothing too bad for the "Savage" tribe to do. This is a miserable place.81 William did indeed have trouble. He had openly admitted his wife's authorship of the sketches and argued that such things should not affect his parish work. He himself wrote to Miriam's family in February 1849, describing a touchy meeting with the vestry on the subject. <* Ibid. Aunt Maguire makes a point. From The Widow Bedott Papers (New York, 1856). ~-Jt. flrar. <5c/