- Oo

Sunday services for all the churchys started at ten o'clock, but the majority of people began to arrive a half-hour, or more, earlier. The women immediately went inside and took their pews, but the men availed themselves of the opportunity to chat with friends whom they seldom met except on this day, and lingered until the opening notes of the organ . prelude sounded a warning. Services lasted at least two hours -=- on specie. oocesicns, longer; the sermon’ was good for over an hour. A shorter sermon would have been a disappointment. Following the closing hymn and the -!.:>45 blessing, people again congregated outside, reluctant to break away from the pleasant social atmosphere.

Sunday was primarily a day for worship, but it was also a day for re- laxation. After dinner, the adults insisted on an hour or two of rest.

We youngsters were not allowed to change into our everyday clothing; respect for the Sabbath demanded that we be suitably dressed, and remain dressed for the entire day -- or until necessary chores had to be performed We were permitted to roam about the fields, so long as we remained within sight of the house. Ws could sit on the lawn swing, provided we.made no noise, and foliowing stern warnings of what would befall us if we soiled or damaged our Sunday attire. There could be absolutely no games, no loud voices, no roughhousing, no climbing trees, no going on the barn loft.

And, worst of all, we weren't allowed to go barefoot.

Several families in the district did not go to church and, although they observed conventional Sunday decorum, we were sometimes envious at seeing their youngsters slipping off to the brook with their fishing “poles. We consoled ourselves with the reflection that such reprehensible goings-on would surely be appropriately dealt with in the hereafter. Of course, we didn't picture them being punished by actual immersion in the flumes of the hell in which we all firnly believed; ruther, we hoped that

they would be let off with just a gentle toasting that would ensure their

mending their ways.