"Cloudy Jewel, it sounds all different from anything I ever heard of,
and I don't know how to do it; but something inside says it ought to
be true, and I'm going to try it!" she said. "Anyhow, we've had a
grand time this afternoon, and it hasn't been a bit dull. Do you
suppose maybe we've been 'delighting' in Him this afternoon? But there
goes the supper bell, and I'm hungry as a bear. How about that,
Cloudy? Is it right to cook on Sunday? That place you read about the
man who picked up sticks to make a fire in camp doesn't sound like
it."
"Well, dear, you know in the old times we always got the Sunday
cooking and baking done on Saturday, just as the Lord told the
Israelites to do. I haven't any business to judge other people, and
every one must decide for himself what is necessary and what is not, I
suppose; but, as for me, I like to do as mother always did. I always
have the cake-box and bread-box full of nice fresh things, and make a
pie, perhaps, and cook a piece of meat, or have some salad in the
ice-box; and then it is the work of but a few minutes to get the
nicest kind of a meal on Sunday. It is easy to have a beefsteak to
broil, or cold meat, or something to warm up in a minute if one cares
enough to get it ready; and it really makes a lovely, restful time on
Sunday to know all that work is done. Besides, it isn't any harder. I
like it."
Allison gathered up the rug and books, and they walked slowly toward
the inn, watching the wonderful colorings of the foliage they passed,
and drinking in all the woodsy odors and gentle sounds of dying leaves
and dropping nuts.
"Say, Cloudy," said Allison suddenly out of the midst of his
thoughtfulness, "why don't the ministers preach about all this? I had
to go to church a lot when I was in prep school, and I never yet heard
a sermon on it. Or, if I did, it was so dull I didn't get the hang of
it. But I should think if they preached about it just as you've done,
made it plain so people could understand, that most folks, that is,
the ones who wanted to do half right, would see to it that Sunday
wasn't so rotten."
"Well, Allison," said Julia Cloud, a soft smile playing dreamfully
about her lips, "perhaps they don't realize the need. Perhaps it's 'up
to you,' as you say, to somehow wake them up and set them at it."
Allison drew a long whistle and grinned as they went into the house.
CHAPTER XIII
A few minutes later Julia Cloud watched them go off into the dusk to
the Christian Endeavor meeting. She was to follow them in a little
while and meet them for the evening service. She wondered as she saw
them disappear into the shadows of the long maple-lined avenue whether
perhaps she was not overdoing the matter a little in the way of
meetings, and was almost sorry she had not suggested staying home from
the evening service. It would not do to make them weary of it all on
this first Sunday.
As they walked along together, the brother and sister were thinking
deeply.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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