University of Virginia Library

ANOTHER SCENE.

“How late we are this morning,” said Mrs.
Roberts to her husband, glancing hurriedly at
the clock, as they were sitting down to breakfast
on a Sabbath morning. “Really, it is a
shame to us to be so late Sundays. I wonder
John and Henry are not up yet: Hannah, did
you speak to them?”

“Yes, ma'am, but I could not make them
mind; they said it was Sunday, and that we always
have breakfast later Sundays.”

“Well, it is a shame to us, I must say,” said
Mrs. Roberts, sitting down to the table. “I
never lie late myself unless something in particular
happens. Last night I was out very late,
and Sabbath before last I had a bad headache.”

“Well, well, my dear,” said Mr. Roberts, “it
is not worth while to worry yourself about it;
Sunday is a day of rest; everybody indulges a
little of a Sunday morning—it is so very natural,
you know; one's work done up, one feels like taking
a little rest.”

“Well, I must say, it was not the way my
mother brought me up,” said Mrs. Roberts,
“and I really can't feel it to be right.”

This last part of the discourse had been listened
to by two sleepy-looking boys, who had,
meanwhile, taken their seat at table with that
listless air which is the result of late sleeping.

“Oh, by-the-by, my dear, what did you give
for those hams, Saturday?” said Mr. Roberts.

“Eleven cents a pound, I believe,” replied
Mrs. Roberts; “but Stephens & Philips have
some much nicer, canvass and all, for ten cents.
I think we had better get our things at Stephens
& Philips's in future, my dear.”

“Why, are they much cheaper?”

“Oh, a great deal; but I forget—it is Sunday.
We ought to be thinking of other things. Boys,
have you looked over your Sunday-school lesson?”

“No, ma'am.”

“Now, how strange! and here it wants only
half an hour of the time, and you are not dressed

either. Now see the bad effects of not being
up in time.”

The boys looked sullen, and said “they were
up as soon as any one else in the house.”

“Well, your father and I had some excuse,
because we were out late last night: you ought
to have been up full three hours ago, and to have
been all ready, with your lessons learned. Now
what do you suppose you shall do?”

“Oh, mother, do let us stay at home this one
morning; we don't know the lesson, and it won't
do any good for us to go.”

“No, indeed, I shall not. You must go, and
get along as well as you can. It is all your own
fault. Now go up stairs and hurry. We shall
not find time for prayers this morning.”

The boys took themselves up stairs to “hurry,”
as directed, and soon one of them called
from the top of the stairs, “Mother! mother!
the buttons are off this vest, so I can't wear it;”
and “mother! here is a long rip in my best
coat,” said another.

“Why did you not tell me of it before?” said
Mrs. Roberts, coming up stairs.

“I forgot it,” said the boy.

“Well, well, stand still; I must catch it together
somehow, if it is Sunday. There! there
is the bell! Stand still a minute!” and Mrs.

Roberts plied needle and thread and scissors;
“there, that will do for to-day. Dear me, how
confused everything is to-day!”

“It is always just so, Sundays,” said John,
flinging up his book and catching it again as he
ran down stairs.

“It is always just so, Sundays.” The words
struck rather unpleasantly on Mrs. Roberts's
conscience, for something told her that, whatever
the reason might be, it was just so. On
Sunday everything was later and more irregular
than any other day in the week.

“Hannah, you must boil that piece of beef
for dinner to-day.”

“I thought you told me you did not have
cooking done on Sunday.”

“No, I do not, generally. I am very sorry
Mr. Roberts would get that piece of meat yesterday;
we did not need it; but here it is on
our hands; the weather is too hot to keep it.
It won't do to let it spoil; so I must have it
boiled, for aught I see.”

Hannah had lived four Sabbaths with Mrs.
Roberts, and on two of them she had been required
to cook from similar reasoning. “For
once” is apt, in such cases, to become a word
of very extensive signification.

“It really worries me to have things go on

so as they do on Sundays,” said Mrs. Roberts
to her husband; “I never do feel as if we kept
Sunday as we ought.”

“My dear, you have been saying so ever
since we were married, and I do not see what
you are going to do about it. For my part, I
do not see why we do not do as well as people
in general. We do not visit, nor receive company,
nor read improper books. We go to
church, and send the children to Sunday-school,
and so the greater part of the day is spent in a
religious way. Then out of church we have
the children's Sunday-school books, and one or
two religious newspapers: I think that is quite
enough.”

“But, somehow, when I was a child, my
mother—” said Mrs. Roberts, hesitating.

“Oh, my dear, your mother must not be considered
an exact pattern for these days. People
were too strict in your mother's time; they
carried the thing too far altogether; everybody
allows it now.”

Mrs. Roberts was silenced, but not satisfied
A strict religious education had left just conscience
enough on this subject to make her uneasy.

These worthy people had a sort of general
idea that Sunday ought to be kept, and they

intended to keep it, but they had never taken
the trouble to investigate or inquire as to the
most proper way, nor was it so much an object
of interest that their weekly arrangements were
planned with any reference to it. Mr. Roberts
would often engage in business at the close of
the week, which he knew would so fatigue him
that he would be weary and listless on Sunday;
and Mrs. Roberts would allow her family cares
to accumulate in the same way, so that she was
either wearied with efforts to accomplish it before
the Sabbath, or perplexed and worried by
finding everything at loose ends on that day.
They had the idea that Sunday was to be kept
when it was perfectly convenient, and did not
demand any sacrifice of time or money. But
if stopping to keep the Sabbath in a journey
would risk passage-money or a seat in the
stage; or, in housekeeping, if it would involve
any considerable inconvenience or expense, it
was deemed a providential intimation that it
was “a work of necessity and mercy” to attend
to secular matters. To their minds the
fourth command read thus: “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy when it comes
convenient, and costs neither time nor money.”

As to the effects of this on the children, there
was neither enough of strictness to make them

respect the Sabbath, nor of religious interest to
make them love it; of course, the little restraint
there was proved just enough to lead
them to dislike and despise it. Children soon
perceive the course of their parents' feelings,
and it was evident enough to the children of
this family that their father and mother generally
found themselves hurried into the Sabbath
with hearts and minds full of this world, and
their conversation and thoughts were so constantly
turning to worldly things, and so awkwardly
drawn back by a sense of religious obligation,
that the Sabbath appeared more obviously
a clog and a fetter, than it did under the
strictest régime of Puritan days.