The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1937-01-20

tette-the old lady with a quav-
ering soprano, and the spinster
with powerful alto Of the bell
lowing kind.
Our performance set the whole
congregation going to beat the
band and forced the choir to put
on full steam-and the minister
was so exhilarated that he waved
his arms and swayed his body as
he sang, and added a couple Of
extra hymns. And by the time
Mr.. Foster had to 60 out to pass
the contribution box, the small
congregation was In q large state
Of mind, and Mr.. Foster and I
were getting pretty chummy.
The contribution box was one
Of the old-fashioned kind that
looked like corn-popper, without
the usual top on the wire cage;
and when Mr.. Foster pushed 1t
over to me by the handle, I put in
a dollar bill, neatly folded so as
not to be too corspicuous-which
noticed did not diminish his
favorable impression OF the strang-
er in his pew.
When sermon-time came I was
all attention. I was conscious
that Mr.. Foster kept an eye on
me-but he never caught me nap
ping nor looking at anything but
the preacher; and after the last
hymn and benediction, he gave me
a most cordial handshake and in
quired how liked the sermon. My
answer so gratified him that he
confided 10 me, You are right,
young men, I picked him out my
self but some of the brethren do
no appreciate him.
Then Mr.. Foster introduced him.
self to me by name and inquired
mine. Dwight Lawrence" said
I. "of Albany, N. Y.,-just out Of
the army and on my first trip as
a commercial traveller, for a Chi
cago house."
The minister and others gath
cred about Mr.. Foster and he in
troduced me to them all. They
were very hearty in their welcome
and invited me to stay to Sunday
school, which I did.
Though would have preferred
visiting around amongSsome Of the
very attractive young ladies who
had classes Of younger chill
dren. I sat In the Old Folks
Bible class of which Mr.. Foster
was teacher.
The days lesson was about the
prophet Elisha and the wicked little
children who made fun of his bald
head: and how the prophet got
mad and cursed the little chill
dren-and two bears rushed out
and tore forty-two OF them to
pieces. The leaflets that were dis
tributed among us gave pictures Of
this incident In the prophets life,
and admonished us that 1t was q
lesson to us all-and especially q
terrible warning to little children.
During the solemn discussion Of
the story one benevolent looking
Dal0-0eaOeO man WhS 30 DUH do w
saw that he coul dhelp feeling that
the punishment Of the children was
excessive: but others were shocked
at his daring to question the &C
ton of a prophet OF the Lord.
I was invited to express my
views. wanted TO- say that my
own private opinion was that II
Elisha had had a proper sense Of
hunor and had used q little tact
he could have gotten along all
right with the little children with
out calling in the aid OF the
bears. And that Mother Goose
understood children and bears q
darn sight better than the author
, of that story. And also that had
too good an opinion Of the Lord
and bald-headed men and bears
to believe that such thing ever
happened. And I felt confident
that a certain lovely old lady in
the class. with q mischieyous little
twinkle in her eye--felt the same