Religious Studies, Sketches and PoemsStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
Religious Studies, Sketches and Poems
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
redoubled devotion. There was Deacon Dundas, a great wagon load
of an old gentleman, whose ample pockets looked as if they might
have held half the congregation, who used to establish himself just
on one side of me, and seemed to feel such entire confidence in
the soundness and capacity of his pastor that he could sleep very
comfortably from one end of the sermon to the other. Occasionally,
to be sure, one of your officious blue flies, who, as everybody
knows, are amazingly particular about such matters, would buzz into
his mouth, or flirt into his ears a passing admonition as to the
impropriety of sleeping in meeting, when the good old gentleman
would start, open his eyes very wide, and look about with a resolute
air, as much as to say, "I wasn't asleep, I can tell you;" and then
setting himself in an edifying posture of attention, you might
perceive his head gradually settling back, his mouth slowly opening
wider and wider, till the good man would go off again soundly
asleep, as if nothing had happened.
It was a good orthodox custom of old times to take every part of
the domestic establishment to meeting, even down to the faithful
dog, who, as he had supervised the labors of the week, also came
with due particularity to supervise the worship of Sunday. I think
I can see now the fitting out on a Sunday morning--the one wagon,
or two, as the case might be, tackled up with an "old gray" or an
"old bay," with a buffalo skin over the seat by way of cushion, and
all the family, in their Sunday best, packed in for meeting; while
Master Bose, Watch, or Towser stood prepared to be an outguard, and
went meekly trotting up hill and down dale in the rear. Arrived at
meeting, the canine part of the establishment generally conducted
themselves with great decorum, lying down and going to sleep as
decently as anybody present, except when some of the business-loving
bluebottles aforesaid would make a sortie upon them, when you might
hear the snap of their jaws as they vainly sought to lay hold of the
offender. Now and then, between some of the sixthlies, seventhlies,
and eighthlies, you might hear some old patriarch giving himself a
rousing shake, and pitpatting soberly up the aisles, as if to see
that everything was going on properly, after which he would lie
down and compose himself to sleep again; and certainly this was as
improving a way of spending Sunday as a good Christian dog could
desire.
But the glory of our meeting-house was its singers' seat--that
empyrean of those who rejoiced in the divine, mysterious art of
fa-sol-la-ing, who, by a distinguishing grace and privilege, could
"raise and fall" the cabalistical eighth notes, and move serene
through the enchanted region of flats, sharps, thirds, fifths, and
octaves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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