accustomed beans and rye and Indian bread to remain in the oven subject to the working heat, over Saturday night, I am not able to certify. But in the intervals of public worship on Sunday,--a term, by the way, which he would have scorned to employ,--the family was assembled and ranged around the walls of the room, and the reading of Scripture, or of some well-worn book of devotion, was proceeded with, while the head of the family sat in the centre, with a stick in his hand long enough to reach the head and shoulders of any inattentive or unquiet child. ----- [7] When a trader failed, as was rarely the case at that primitive period, his sign was taken down at night, to the wonder of the public in the morning, and he remained fast locked from the sheriff, or too inquisitive callers, in his house, until the disposition of his creditors became known,--dependent upon their confidence in his good intentions, or their sympathy with his unexpected misfortunes. [8] An anecdote quite parallel to this is to be found in the now late lamented Dean Ramsay's "Reminiscences." He relates, as a specimen of the cool Scottish matter-of-fact view of things, the following communication of a correspondent:-- "The back windows of the house where he was brought up looked upon the Greyfriars' Church that was burned down. On the Sunday morning in which that event took place, as they were all preparing to go to church, the flames began to burst forth; the young people screamed from the back part of the house, 'A fire! a fire!' and all was in a state of confusion and alarm. The housemaid was not at home, it being her turn for the Sunday 'out.' Kitty, the cook, was taking her place, and performing her duties. The old woman was always very particular on the subject of her responsibility on such occasions, and came panting and hobbling upstairs from the lower regions, and exclaimed, 'Oh what is't, what is't?' 'O, Kitty, look here, the Greyfriars' Church is on fire!' 'Is that a', Miss? What a fright ye geed me! I thought ye said the parlor fire was out.'" [9] It was, I believe, the oldest Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, with the exception of King's Chapel, in Boston, a small wooden structure, which stood upon the place where the stone edifice of that name is now situated. CHAPTER VI.