The Elbert County tribune., 1908-05-07
scopyrish. by Joseph B. Rowies)

they growed thirselyes"
Then the doors of the church would
open and the people inside would
slowly emerge for the last rites In the
drama of Uncle Billy"
Country churchyards are generally
very beautiful spots. and flowers grow
in them on all sides. The sense of an
eternal Sabbath seems brooding
among the white headstones and over
the soft, grassy mounds that heave
between the quiet paths.
When we did not go to church we
used to drift on to the woods and lie
down under the century-old oaks and
watch the sunshine sift down on the
grass and the leaves There was an
indescribable sense of perspective III
looking into the tops of these wood
land elders and wondering just what
life and color and motion had passed
before them in long review since the
time when the tree first sprung as a
sapling from the hillsides.
One OF these oaks slanted from an
abrupt slope towards a shallow creek.
and under II spring bubbled up.
where watercresses grew. and where
the meadow-frogs rendezyoued. To
this spring resorted sundry catbirds.
jays and robins, fitting their heads
back and draining the cool water with
particular relish. Fox squirrels
scampered up and down the broad in
cline of this great tree. and occasional
ly wayfaring crows perched in the top
most branches. The grass beneath 1t
was thick and soft. and a continual
breeze seemed ever-present in its up
per twigs. however still the air was at
its base. II was veritable cloister.
THE groves were Gods first temples;
man learned
| To hew the shaft, and lay the archi-
trave."
| And many an hour we dreamed and
| unused under the shade OF this forest
leviathan until the waning sun threw
shadows down from western battle
ments
In the pastures and meadows the
sheep nibbled. huddling in woolly
mass at the approach of any intruder
and dashing away in panic at the sight
of dog. Cattle grazed on the slopes
| or, at the approach of noon. chewed
the cud in the shade of elms and
naples.
After church was over the Sunday
schools took up, and the children sang
| Sunday school hymns and studied or
recited their lessons until the time
came for them to go home. The usual
custom after church was to go visit
Ing" This meant another hitching up
of the horses and trip of from three
! to seven miles to some ueighbor's.
there to unhitch and stay to supper
and to sit around and discuss all the
news OF the neighborhood.
The morning sermons are thrashed
over the funeral. If there has been
one. carefully gone over, and the ante
cedents of the deceased. and of his
immediate relatives commented on.
Crops always furnish fruitful theme
| for argument or prophecy, and the
men and the women invariably sep
arate and talk in different groups. The
men often gravitate to the barn. the
women to the parlor, and the children
usually play in the yards. Visiting"
| is one OF the tokens OF society among
| the married folks. and the organ is
| generally pressed into service and a
| little Sunday music and singing In
| dulged in. A girl who can play the
| organ well has an accomplishment
| which ia considered an enviable one
| in the country.
The advent of some one from dis
tant settlement always is hailed with
| great interest, and / have seen such
an arrival cross-questioned at length
by a group of interested bystanders. A
man like that usually has a grist of
\
pumped dry is an object of general In
terest
One Of the peculiarities in life in
the country is the fact that great
many families are related to one an
other by marriage, and nearly every
body is everybody else's thirty-second
cousin. The result is that there is
sort of tab" kept by each person on
all the births, deaths and marriages
that occur in the surrounding counties,
and the interest manifested never
grows less on account OF this distant
relationship.
Even when man takes his family
and moves to another state he general
ly takes his old paper, just to see how
things are progressing in his old coun-
ty. and when he comes back, az he
often does. to take up his residence in
the same noighborhood from whence
he formerly departed. he is "up to
date as to the neighborhood happen
ings and can tell just who has died,
who's been married. and all other
items of local moment.
These Sunday ''visitings" are the
free-for-all debating societies Of the
district, and friendships are cemented
or feuds started at them. according to
circumstances.
No business Is ever transacted on