I was waiting at my gate for Melissa when she came , and she looked me over with wonder and disapproval . I could see she thought I was a fool to dress up in my second best flowered muslin and my very best hat with the pale pink roses in it to walk about in the heat and dust ; but I was n't . All my experience in canvassing goes to show that the better dressed and better looking you are the more money you 'll get -- that is , when it 's the men you have to tackle , as in this case . If it had been the women , however , I would have put on the oldest and ugliest things , consistent with decency , I had . This was what Melissa had done , as it was , and she did look fearfully prim and dowdy , except for her front hair , which was as soft and fluffy and elaborate as usual . I never could understand how Melissa always got it arranged so beautifully . Nothing particular happened the first part of the day . Some few growled and would n't subscribe anything , but on the whole we did pretty well . If it had been a missionary subscription we should have fared worse ; but when it was something touching their own comfort , like cushioning the pews , they came down handsomely . We reached Daniel Wilson 's by noon , and had to have dinner there . We did n't eat much , although we were hungry enough -- Mary Wilson 's cooking is a by-word in Jersey Cove . No wonder Daniel is dyspeptic ; but dyspeptic or not , he gave us a big subscription for our cushions and told us we looked younger than ever . Daniel is always very complimentary , and they say Mary is jealous . When we left the Wilson 's Melissa said , with an air of a woman nerving herself to a disagreeable duty : `` I suppose we might as well go to Isaac Appleby 's now and get it over . '' I agreed with her . I had been dreading that call all day . It is n't a very pleasant thing to go to a man you have recently refused to marry and ask him for money ; and Melissa and I were both in that predicament . Isaac was a well-to-do old bachelor who had never had any notion of getting married until his sister died in the winter . And then , as soon as the spring planting was over , he began to look round for a wife . He came to me first and I said `` No '' good and hard .
I liked Isaac well enough ; but I was snug and comfortable , and did n't feel like pulling up my roots and moving into another lot ; besides , Isaac 's courting seemed XXXXX me a shade too business-like .
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