"Why, _Belle_!" said Hatty, who was beginning to get over shyness that had kept her silent hitherto in the family gatherings. "Do you let Mabel have her playthings on Sunday?" "I never made any laws for my children in regard to Sunday, save this: they should not be noisy on that day, and disturb those who wanted quiet. As soon as they ceased to be mere animals, and began to reason and to imitate, they laid aside their toys on Saturday night of their own accord." "But Mabel has her doll." "Yes, she has her baby, and you have yours." Hatty, in fact, played more with Kitty on Sunday than on any other day in the week, except on nurse's afternoon "out"; for, like most mothers, she had charge of her child in order to let the servants attend church. And she would have thought the Lord a very hard Master if He had denied her this privilege. Mabel, on the other hand, had left off playing on Sunday, though she still allowed herself to hold her baby in her loving little arms. Now, is it likely that He who implanted this maternal instinct begrudged this child the caress she gave her doll? "I don't think the cases are parallel," objected Hatty. "I _must_ have Kitzie, and _must_ amuse her. My mother locked up all our toys on Saturday night." "Yes, many mothers do, and pride themselves on it. And so, as children must and will have occupation, they are likely to eat apples, gingerbread, or whatever they can get hold of, to pass away the time. This makes them heavy and ill-natured, and they get to quarrelling." "But think how strict the old Jewish law was! A man stoned to death for picking up sticks!" "The world was in its infancy then; and at any rate, He who made the law had His own reasons for it. But we live under a new dispensation, and ours is a Christian, not a Jewish, Sabbath. I have a great dread of making it a disagreeable day to my children." "But you can't deny," said Laura, joining the group with her baby, "that there is awful laxity in regard to the Sabbath nowadays." "No, I do not deny it; there always is reaction after pressure. It is to be hoped that things will right themselves in time." "Well, I wish the Bible had given explicit directions about everything." "Hasn't it?" "No, indeed. Here are you and Hatty, both good souls as ever lived, taking contrary views of so apparently plain a thing as to how to keep Sunday. Now, the promise to those who don't do their own ways, nor find their own pleasure, or speak their own words, staggers me as much as any admonition or threat could. Thousands of Christians will tell you this is their ideal of Sunday; but who lives up to it? Goodness! Think of the worldly talk that has gone on to-day among those who profess to be saints!" "Now you go too far, Laura," said Belle.