Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-10-25
The Parson began n his high-oracked
voice to intone the hymn:
Sing to the Lord aloud
please turn that dog out)-
And make joyful noise.

Sing to the Lord aloud
please turn that dog OUT
And make joyful noise.
The dog was turned out, and the choi
did their best to make a joyful noise, bu
we boys were upset for the day, deliver
ed over to the temptations of Satan, ant
plunged in waves and pillows of hysteri
cal giggle, from which neither winks mol
frowns from Aunt Lois, nor the awfu'
fear of the tithing man, nor the comfort
ing bits of fennel and orange peel, pass
ed US by grandmother, could recover
us.
Everybody felt, to be sure. that here
was trial that called for some indul
gence. Hard faces even among the best
saints, betrayed a transient culver ofthe
risible muscles, old ladies put up their
fans, youths and maidens in the singers
seat laughed outright, and for the mo-
ment general snicker among children
was pardoned. But / was one of that
luckless kind whose nerves once set in vi
bration, could not be composed. When
the reign of gravity and decorum had
returned, Harry and sat by each other
shaking with suppressed laughter. Ev-
erything in the subsequent exercises took
a funny turn and in the long prayer,
when everybody else was still and deco
rous, the whole scene came over me with
such overpowering force that exploded
with laughter and had to be taken out of
meeting and marched home by Aunt Lo
is, as convicted criminal. What es-
pecially moved her indignation was, the
more she rebuked and upbraided the
more | laughed, till the tears rolled down
my cheeks. Which Aunt Lois construct
ed into wilful disrespect to her authority
and resented accordingly.
By Sunday evening, as we gathered
around the fire, the reaction from undue
gaiety to sobriety hal taken place and
we were in a pensive and penitent state,
grandmother was gracious and forgiving
but Aunt Lois still preserved that frosty
air of reprobation which she held to be
salutary means of quickening our con-
sciences for the future. 1t was therefore
with unusual delight that we saw our
old friend Sam come in sit himself quiz
city down on the block in the chimney
corner. With Sam we felt assured of
indulgence and patronage, for though
always rigidly moral and instructive in
his turn of mind, he had that fellow feel
ing for transgressors which is character
istic of the loose-j jointed, easy going style
of his individuality.
Lordy massy, boys-yis, said Sam, vir-
tuously in view of some of Aunt Lois's
thrusts, ye ought never to laugh not cut
up in meeting. that ares so, but then,
there is times when the best of us gets
took down. We gets took unwares, ye
see-even ministers does. Yis natur'
will git the upper hand before they know
it.
Why Sam, ministers don't ever laugh
in meetin' do they?
We put the question with wide eyes.
Such asupposition bordered on profanity
we thought it was approaching the sin
of Uzzah, who unwarily touched the ark
of the Lord.
Laws, yes. Why, haven't you never
hea, d how there was counsel held to
Parson Morrell for laughing out in pray
er time?
Laughing in prayer time we both re-
peated with uplifteG hands and eyes.
My grandfather's mild face became lu-
minous with suppressed smile which
frightened it as the moon does cloud,
but he said nothing.
Yes. yes, said my grandmother, that
affair did make dreadful scandal in the
time ont. But Parson Morrel was
good man, and I'm glad the counsel
wasn't hard on him.
Wal, said Sam Lawson, after all, it
was more Ike Babbitt's fault than twas
anybody's. Ye see, Ike be was alters for
getting what he could out O. the town,
and he would feed his sheep on the meet
in house green. Somehow or other, Ike's
fences alters contrived to get out come
Sunday. and up would come his sheep,
and Ike was too pious to drive 'em back
Sunday, and so there they was. He was
talked to enough about it, cause We see
to have sheep and lambs ba-a-in' and
a blatin' all prayer and sermon time,
wasn't the thing. Member that are old
meetin' house up to the north end down
under Blueberry Hill, the land sort O.
sloped down, SO as a body he'd to come
into the meetin' house stepping down in
stead of up.
Fact was, they said twas put there
cause the land want good for nothin'
else, and the folks thought putin a
meetin' house ont would be clear savin'
but Parson Morrel he didn't like it-and
xrao froa 70 fall I'M HE mind ansf that -