THIS Sunday evening I will say a word about Sunday of olden times. On Saturday evening the work of the week was finished. My father, after washing and putting on a skillet of water, would get his razor and soap, sit down by the fire and shave off his beard. Then he would take his Bible and sometimes some other book.
My mother, after washing the potatoes and other vegetables, and getting ready the Sunday food, used to make hasty pudding 238 for supper. This was eaten in milk, or if we had no milk, it was eaten with butter and molasses. Then the little children were put to bed.
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Early in the evening my father read a chapter in the Bible and made a prayer. Soon after that the younger part of the family and the hired help went to bed. Indeed the family every night went to their rest soon after supper, especially in the summer.
Saturday night and Sunday and Sunday night, there was a perfect stillness. No play was going on, and no laughing. Those of us who were old enough took the Bible or learned a hymn. We read in the
COLONIAL PEWS.
testament or primer to father or mother in the morning. For breakfast, when we had milk enough, we had bread and milk. Otherwise we had beans and corn porridge.
After the war of the Revolution, tea and toast were used for Sunday morning breakfast. As we lived at a distance from meeting, those who walked started as early as nine o'clock. Those who went on horse back set out soon after.
The roads and bridges were very bad. The horses
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always carried two, and often a child in the mother's lap. Sometimes there was another child on the pommel of the saddle before the father. All went to meeting, except someone to keep the house and to take care of the children who could not take care of themselves.
The one who stayed at home was told when to put the pork and vegetables into the pot for the supper which we had after meeting. Those who went to meeting used to carry in their pockets some short cake, or doughnuts and cheese for dinner. We used to get home from meeting generally at four o'clock.
Then the women set the table, and the men took care of the horses and cattle in winter. After supper the children and younger part of the family were called together to read in the Bible and primer 239 and to sing some hymns and prayers. Soon after this, before my father read in the Bible and made a prayer, the cows were brought from the pasture and milked.
No work was done except what was absolutely necessary. The dishes for supper and breakfast were left unwashed till Monday. Every one in the town, who was able to go to meeting, went. If any were absent, it was noticed, and it was supposed that sickness was the reason. If any one was absent three or four Sundays, the tithing man would make him a visit.240 But this did not often happen.
Sunday was not unpleasant to me. I did not feel gloomy, or want to play, or wish Sunday was gone or would not come. This was because I was so used to its rules.
[238] Hasty pudding = corn mush.
[239] "The New England Primer," everywhere read by children.
[240] The tithing man was an officer of the church, who kept order during services, and saw to it that people did not stay away without reason.
