`` Do n't let me catch you at it again . '' `` You chewed yourself in prayer-meeting last week , '' cried Faith . `` THAT 'S different , '' said Jerry loftily . `` Prayer-meeting is n't on Sunday . Besides , I sat away at the back in a dark seat and nobody saw me . You were sitting right up front where every one saw you . And I took the gum out of my mouth for the last hymn and stuck it on the back of the pew right up in front where every one saw you . And I took the gum out of my mouth for the last hymn and stuck it on the back of the pew in front of me . Then I came away and forgot it . I went back to get it next morning , but it was gone . I suppose Rod Warren swiped it . And it was a dandy chew . '' Mary Vance walked down the Valley with her head held high . She had on a new blue velvet cap with a scarlet rosette in it , a coat of navy blue cloth and a little squirrel-fur muff . She was very conscious of her new clothes and very well pleased with herself . Her hair was elaborately crimped , her face was quite plump , her cheeks rosy , her white eyes shining . She did not look much like the forlorn and ragged waif the Merediths had found in the old Taylor barn . Una tried not to feel envious . Here was Mary with a new velvet cap , but she and Faith had to wear their shabby old gray tams again this winter . Nobody ever thought of getting them new ones and they were afraid to ask their father for them for fear that he might be short of money and then he would feel badly .
Mary had told them once that ministers were always short XXXXX money , and found it `` awful hard '' to make ends meet .
Besides at for in like of on to up with