endure. How, then, could he be
expected to be equal to four whole hours of stillness? Yet that was what
his grandfather required of him whenever he went to church.

The order of the day was as follows:--Leaving the house about ten
o'clock in the big covered carriage, of which the Squire felt duly
proud, as being the only one in the county, they drove leisurely into
the village, where the horses were put up, and after the ladies had
dropped in at a friend's to make sure their bonnets and dresses were as
they ought to be, they wended their way to the church, which, standing
right in the centre of the village, was noisily summoning its
worshippers to its seats as the big bell swung to and fro high up in the
steeple.

The church service began at eleven o'clock, and was of the most
old-fashioned orthodox type. No organ had yet profaned the sanctity of
that holy place, but instead thereof, a quartette of singers, selected
seemingly more for the strength than the sweetness of their voices,
occupied a large box right under the pulpit, and thence led the
congregation by a whole bar at least, in the rendering of Tate and
Brady's metrical version of the Psalms. Very weird and sorrowful were
many of the tunes. None were bright and inspiring like those Bert was
wont to hear at home, and as choir and congregation vied with one
another in the vigour of their singing, the little fellow was sometimes
half-frightened at the bewildering noise they made.

A saintlier pastor than the Reverend Mr. Goodman, D.D., few
congregations possessed; but only those members of his audience who were
of like age with himself thought him a good preacher. He had, indeed,
some gifts in expounding the Bible, and even Bert would be interested if
the lesson happened to be one of those stirring stories from the Old
Testament which seem so full of life and truth. But when it came to
preaching a sermon--well, it must be confessed there were then few dryer
preachers throughout the whole Province of Acadia. Bending low over his
manuscript, for his eyesight was poor, and lifting his head only now
and then to wipe his brow, or relieve his throat, with a dry, hard
cough, Mr. Goodman pursued his way steadily and monotonously from
"firstly" to "lastly" every Sunday.

And not only once, but twice on every Sunday. For be it understood, that
although many of the congregation lived too far away from the church to
make two trips to it from their homes, they were not ther