Year: 1878

Charles Dudley Warmers New Book, "Being


A Boy.'1


The New England country boy of the last
generation never heard of Christmas. There
was no such day in his calendar. If John
ever came across itin his reading he attached
no meaning to the word.


1t his curiosity had been aroused, and he
had asked his ELDERS about it, he might have
got the dim impression that it was kind of
popish holiday, the celebration of which
was about as wicked as "card playing" or
being dem ocrat" John knew a couple
of desperately bad boys who were reported to
play ''seven up In barn, on the hay NOW,
and the enormity OF this practice made him
shudder.


He had once seen pack of greasy 'play-
ing cards." and it seemed to him to contain
the quintessence of sin. If he had desired
to defy all divine law and outrage all human
society, he felt that he could do it by shuf-
ling them. And he was quite right. The
two bad boys enjoyed in stealth their scan
dalous pastime, because they knew it was
the most wicked tnIng they could do. If it
had been as sinless as playing marbles, they
wouldn't have cared for it. John sometimes
drove past brown, tumble down farm
house, whose shiftless inhabitants it was
said, were card playing people; and it is
impossible to describe how wicked that
house appeared to John. He almost expected
to see its shingles stand on end. In old New
England one could not in any other way so
express his contempt of all holy and orderly
life as by playing cards for amusement.


There was no element of Christmas in
Johns life, any more than there was of
Easter; and probably nobody about him
could have explained Easter; and he escaped
all the decentralization attending Christmas
gifts. Indeed. he never had any presents OF
any kind, either on his birthday or any
nth doxy 10 ovno0taA nnfhinor that bo
did not earn. or make in the way OF "trade'
with another boy. He was taught to work
for what he received. He even earned, as |
said, the extra holiday of the day after the
Fourth and the day after Thanksgiving.
OF the free grace and gifts of Christmas he
had no conception. The single and melan-
choly association he hsd with it was the
quaking hymn which his grandfather used
to sing in cracked and quavering voice
While shepherds watched their focks by


night,


All seated on the ground.


The glory that 'shone around" at the
end of 1.-THE doleful voice always repeat
ing, land glory sbone around"-made john
as miserable as ''Hark! from the tombs." 1t
was all one dreary ex pactation of something
uncomfortable. 1t was, in short, religion"
You'd got to have it some time; that John
believed. But it lay in his unthinking
mind to put off the "Hark! from the tombsh
enjoyment as long as possible. He ex-
perienced kind of delightful wickedness in
indulging his dislike OF hymns ana of Sun
day


John was not model boy, but 1 can not
exactly define IN what his wickedness con-
sisted. He had no inclination to steal, nor
much to lie; and he despised "meanness''
and stinginess, aud had a ohivalrous feeling
toward little girls. Probably 1t never oc.
CURED to him that there was any virtue in
not stealing and lying, for honesty and
veracity were in the atmosphere about him.
He hated work, and he "got mad" easily:
but he did work and he was always ashamed
when he was over his fit of passion. In short
you couldn't find much better wicked boy
than John.


When the revival came, therefore, one
summer, John was in quandary. Sunday
meeting and Sundsy-school he didn't mind;
they were part of regular life, and only
temporarily interrupted boys pleasures
But when there began to be evening meet
ipgs at the different houses, new element
came into affairs. There was a kind of So
lemnity over the community, and a serious
ness in all faces. At first these twilight as
semblies offered a little relief to the
monotony of farm-life; and John liked to
meet the boys and girls, and to watch the
older people coming in, dressed in their
second best / think Johns imagination
was worked upon by the sweet and mourn
full hymns that were discordantly sung in
the stiff old parlors. There was a suggestion
of Sunday, and sanctity, too, in the odor of
csraway seed that pervaded the room. The
windows were wide open also. and the scent
of June roses came in with all the languish-
ing sounds of q summer night. All the
little boys had scared look, but the little
girls were never 50 pretty and demure as in
this their susceptible seriousness. IL John
saw a boy who did not come to the evening
meeting, but was wandering off with his
sling down the meadow, looking for frogs
mavbe. that boy seemed to him monster of
wickedness.


After time, as the meetings continued.
John fell also under the general impression
OF fright and seriousn ess. All the talk was
of getting religion" and he heard over and
over again that the probability was II he
did not get it soon he never would. The
chance did not come often, and if this offer
was not improved John would be given over
to hardness of heart. His obstinacy would
show that he was not one of the elect. John
fancied that he could feel his heart harden
ing, and he began to look with wlstful anx-
iety into the faces OF the Christians to see
what were the visible signs of being one of
the elect. John put on q good deal Of