"How late we are this morning!" said Mrs. Roberts to her husband,
glancing hurriedly at the clock, as they were sitting down to
breakfast on a Sabbath morning. "Really, it is a shame to us to be
so late Sundays. I wonder John and Henry are not up yet: Hannah, did
you speak to them?"
"Yes, ma'am, but I could not make them mind; they said it was
Sunday, and that we always have breakfast later Sundays."
"Well, it is a shame to us, I must say," said Mrs. Roberts, sitting
down to the table. "I never lie late myself unless something in
particular happens. Last night I was out very late, and Sabbath
before last I had a bad headache."
"Well, well, my dear," said Mr. Roberts, "it is not worth while to
worry yourself about it; Sunday is a day of rest; everybody indulges
a little of a Sunday morning, it is so very natural, you know; one's
work done up, one feels like taking a little rest."
"Well, I must say it was not the way my mother brought me up," said
Mrs. Roberts; "and I really can't feel it to be right."
This last part of the discourse had been listened to by two
sleepy-looking boys, who had, meanwhile, taken their seats at table
with that listless air which is the result of late sleeping.
"Oh, by the bye, my dear, what did you give for those hams
Saturday?" said Mr. Roberts.
"Eleven cents a pound, I believe," replied Mrs. Roberts; "but
Stephens and Philips have some much nicer, canvas and all, for
ten cents. I think we had better get our things at Stephens and
Philips's in future, my dear."
"Why? are they much cheaper?"
"Oh, a great deal; but I forget it is Sunday. We ought to be
thinking of other things. Boys, have you looked over your
Sunday-school lesson?"
"No, ma'am."
"Now, how strange! and here it wants only half an hour of the time,
and you are not dressed either. Now, see the bad effects of not
being up in time."
The boys looked sullen, and said "they were up as soon as any one
else in the house."
"Well, your father and I had some excuse, because we were out late
last night; you ought to have been up full three hours ago, and to
have been all ready, with your lessons learned. Now, what do you
suppose you shall do?"
"Oh, mother, do let us stay at home this one morning; we don't know
the lesson, and it won't do any good for us to go."
"No, indeed, I shall not. You must go and get along as well as you
can. It is all your own fault. Now, go upstairs and hurry. We shall
not find time for prayers this morning."
The boys took themselves upstairs to "hurry," as directed, and soon
one of them called from the top of the stairs, "Mother! mother! the
buttons are off this vest; so I can't wear it!" and "Mother! here is
a long rip in my best coat!" said another.
"Why did you not tell me of it before?" said Mrs. Roberts, coming
upstairs.
"I forgot it," said the boy.
"Well, well, stand still; I must catch it together somehow, if it is
Sunday. There! there is the bell! Stand still a minute!" and Mrs.
Roberts plied needle, and thread, and scissors; "there, that will do
for to-day. Dear me, how confused everything is to-day!"
"It is always just so Sundays," said John, flinging up his book and
catching it again as he ran downstairs.
"It is always just so Sundays." These words struck rather
unpleasantly on Mrs. Roberts's conscience, for something told her
that, whatever the reason might be, it _was_ just so. On Sunday
everything was later and more irregular than any other day in the
week.
"Hannah, you must boil that piece of beef for dinner to-day."
"I thought you told me you did not have cooking done on Sunday."
"No, I do not, generally. I am very sorry Mr. Roberts would get
that piece of meat yesterday. We did not need it, but here it is on
our hands; the weather is too hot to keep it. It won't do to let it
spoil; so I must have it boiled, for aught I see."
Hannah had lived four Sabbaths with Mrs. Roberts, and on two of
them she had been required to cook from similar reasoning. "For
once" is apt, in such cases, to become a phrase of very extensive
signification.
"It really worries me to have things go on so as they do on
Sundays," said Mrs. Roberts to her husband. "I never do feel as if
we kept Sunday as we ought."
"My dear, you have been saying so ever since we were married, and I
do not see what you are going to do about it. For my part I do not
see why we do not do as well as people in general. We do not visit,
nor receive company, nor read improper books. We go to church, and
send the children to Sunday-school, and so the greater part of the
day is spent in a religious way. Then out of church we have the
children's Sunday-school books, and one or two religious newspapers.
I think that is quite enough."
"But, somehow, when I was a child, my mother"--said Mrs. Roberts,
hesitating.
"Oh, my dear, your mother must not be considered an exact pattern
for these days. People were too strict in your mother's time; they
carried the thing too far, altogether; everybody allows it now."
Mrs. Roberts was silenced, but not satisfied. A strict religious
education had left just conscience enough on this subject to make
her uneasy.
These worthy people had a sort of general idea that Sunday ought to
be kept, and they intended to keep it; but they had never taken the
trouble to investigate or inquire as to the most proper way, nor
was it so much an object of interest that their weekly arrangements
were planned with any reference to it. Mr. Roberts would often
engage in business at the close of the week, which he knew would
so fatigue him that he would be weary and listless on Sunday; and
Mrs. Roberts would allow her family cares to accumulate in the same
way, so that she was either wearied with efforts to accomplish it
before the Sabbath, or perplexed and worried by finding everything
at loose ends on that day. They had the idea that Sunday was to
be kept when it was perfectly convenient, and did not demand any
sacrifice of time or money. But if stopping to keep the Sabbath in
a journey would risk passage money or a seat in the stage, or, in
housekeeping, if it would involve any considerable inconvenience or
expense, it was deemed a providential intimation that it was "a work
of necessity and mercy" to attend to secular matters. To their minds
the fourth command read thus: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy when it comes convenient, and costs neither time nor money."
As to the effects of this on the children, there was neither enough
of strictness to make them respect the Sabbath, nor of religious
interest to make them love it; of course, the little restraint
there was proved just enough to lead them to dislike and despise
it. Children soon perceive the course of their parents' feelings,
and it was evident to the children of this family that their father
and mother generally found themselves hurried into the Sabbath
with hearts and minds full of this world, and their conversation
and thoughts were so constantly turning to worldly things, and so
awkwardly drawn back by a sense of religious obligation, that the
Sabbath appeared more obviously a clog and a fetter than it did
under the strictest régime of Puritan days.