clouds of dust, while the good deacon sat jerking the reins, in an
automatic way, and the "womenfolks" patiently saw the dust settle upon
their best summer finery. Wagon after wagon went along the sandy
road, and when our boy's family started, they became part of a long
procession, which sent up a mile of dust and a pungent, if not pious
smell of buffalo-robes. There were fiery horses in the trail which had
to be held in, for it was neither etiquette nor decent to pass anybody
on Sunday. It was a great delight to the farmer-boy to see all this
procession of horses, and to exchange sly winks with the other boys, who
leaned over the wagon-seats for that purpose. Occasionally a boy rode
behind, with his back to the family, and his pantomime was always some
thing wonderful to see, and was considered very daring and wicked.

The meeting-house which our boy remembers was a high, square building,
without a steeple. Within it had a lofty pulpit, with doors underneath
and closets where sacred things were kept, and where the tithing-men
were supposed to imprison bad boys. The pews were square, with seats
facing each other, those on one side low for the children, and all with
hinges, so that they could be raised when the congregation stood up for
prayers and leaned over the backs of the pews, as horses meet each other
across a pasture fence. After prayers these seats used to be slammed
down with a long-continued clatter, which seemed to the boys about
the best part of the exercises. The galleries were very high, and the
singers' seats, where the pretty girls sat, were the most conspicuous
of all. To sit in the gallery away from the family, was a privilege not
often granted to the boy. The tithing-man, who carried a long rod and
kept order in the house, and out-doors at noontime, sat in the gallery,
and visited any boy who whispered or found curious passages in the
Bible and showed them to another boy. It was an awful moment when the
bushy-headed tithing-man approached a boy in sermon-time. The eyes of
the whole congregation were on him, and he could feel the guilt ooze out
of his burning face.

At noon was Sunday-school, and after that, before the afternoon service,
in summer, the boys had a little time to eat their luncheon together
at the watering-trough, where some of the elders were likely to be
gathered, talking very solemnly about cattle; or they went over to
a neighboring barn to see the calves; or they slipped off down th