Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-04-08
I(omth's Column.
How Ponto Went to Church.

1t was laughingly said in Uncle
Jerry's family that Ponto was a pious
dog, for he always followed the car
ryall to church, and fingered to return
home with his friends after service.
This was considered a rather decorous
trait in the grizzly old dog, and even
Deacon Jerry was known to crack a
mild joke on Ponto's regularity in
assembling himself together" on
Sunday morning.
But one bright Sabbath, when the
appletrees were in blossom, and the
factory girls had donned their new
straw bonnets, and all the more for
tunate boys were looking SO spruce IN
their fresh spring suits that it was
pleasure as we'll as duty to present
themselves at the quaint village
church, Ponto resolved to be no long
er doOrkeeper in the house of the
Lord. and accordingly he sidled up
the aisle after his mistress and fol-
lowed her into the pew. When he
showed no disposition to regard her
hint to go out as he came in, the tim
id lady concluded to let him be where
he was, hoping against hope that he
would disturb no one. Uncle Jerry
owned two pews, and Ponto might,
during good behavior, be allowed to
spread himself in one of them. His
demeanor was reverential enough for
time; but when the immemorial
seamstress of the family appeared at
the door of the pew, escorted by
suitor from a distance, who was hos
pitably entertained at the deacon's
house, in view of the fact that he was
a man of substance and class-leader
withal, Ponto challenged the latter
with few gruff notes that decided
the worthy couple to retire to another
seat. He had taken an obstinate dis
like to Sarah's choice, based, it was
limited, on canine jealousy, and this
was bis opportunity to show it. The
embarrassment of the devoted pair
was increased by the significant CLAN
ces of the younger members of the
congregation but it was of brief
duration, being effectually relieved by
Ponto himself.
When the organ voluntary Zone of
Mendelssohn' songs without words)
began, he arose on his hind legs,
placed his fore-paws on the back of
the pew, and resting his nose on them,
sent forth a series of penitential bowls
that must have come from the Utmost
recesses of his dog soul. All the
lapses of his mature life, and the for
gotten peccadillos of his youth, the
very vagaries of his puppyhood, pass
ed before him in fearful array. That
lace bonnet of Abby's that he shook
to pieces that melodeon cover that
he che wed up and hid in the currant
bushes that kitten that he kept
trembling in the top of the pear-tree
all one morning-Miserere!
His mistress, at the first utterance
of his confession, strove to divert his
mind from the painful subject by in
viting him out into the sunshine and
free air, but not an inch would he
bulge till he had made clean breast
of it, and had ruined Miss Simpkins
beautiful voluntary in the process.
Then, with the assistance of his
young master, just arrived at the
dignity of of a cane and tail coat, he
was toled out into the aisle, but in
stead of turning toward the door of
egress, he made for the pulpit, which
he invaded with a bound, and quilted
with equal precipitancy on the other
side. Before any one had the pres
ence of mind to open the east door
for him, around he came into the Dea-
cons aisle again, and by that time his
pursuers had crossed in front of the
pews to the other side.
Two or three turns like this for
that modest dame, the deacon's wife,
and that sensitive young man, the
deacon's son, in the face of a congre-
CATION at once titering and awe
struck, constituted an experience to
remembered for lifetime.
ooh, l can laugh now,' said the
deacon's wife, in recalling the Incl
dent for the enlivenment of her
grandchildren, ''but l thought [
should die then"
A fortunate doubling on the intru-
der, an open door, waving tail, a
brandished cane, and then a sudden
exit of two of the actors left the eX-
hausted matron free to drop into
rear pew and collect her thoughts as
best she might.
That new rattan cane was never
seen thereafter, and there were those
who believed that POnto had a taste
of its quality that embittered his
ecclesiastical views to the end of his
life.
After the service Deacon Jerry
said Boys, you must tie Ponto up
next Sunday morning"
Sunday morning came, but no
Ponto was to be found. On the arri-
val of the family at church there he
was, awaiting them; but he showed
no inclination to enter with them.
From that time until the day of his
death Ponto never failed to disappear
early Sunday morning, and to re-
appear in the churchyard at half-past
ten. And never again did he cross