ll panes. And between the
windows, on the outside, hang the heads of all the wolves that have been
killed in the township within the year. But the Quakers think that the
wolves have cheated the parish and got inside, in sheep's clothing.

The people are assembling. The Governor has passed by, with his four
vergers bearing halberds before him. The French Popish ambassadors, who
have just arrived from Canada, are told the customs of the place, and
left to stay quietly in the Governor's house, with sweetmeats, wines,
and the liberty of a private walk in the garden. The sexton has just
called for the minister, as is his duty twice every Sunday, and,
removing his cocked hat, he walks before his superior officer. The
minister enters and passes up the aisle, dressed in Geneva cloak, black
skull-cap, and black gloves open at thumb and finger, for the better
handling of his manuscript. He looks round upon his congregation, a few
hundred, recently _seated_ anew for the year, arranged according to rank
and age. There are the old men in the pews beneath the pulpit. There are
the young men in the gallery, or near the door, with ruffs, showy belts,
gold and silver buttons, "points" at the knees, and great boots. There
are the young women, with "silk or tiffany hoods or scarfs,"
"embroidered or needle-worked caps," "immoderate great sleeves," "cut
works,"--a mystery,--"slash apparel,"--another mystery,--"immoderate
great vayles, long wings," etc.,--mystery on mystery, but all recorded
in the statutes, which forbid these splendors to persons of mean estate.
There are the wives of the magistrates in prominent seats, and the
grammar-school master's wife next them; and in each pew, close to the
mother's elbow, is the little wooden cage for the youngest child, still
too young to sit alone. All boys are held too young to sit alone also;
for, though the emigrants left in Holland the aged deaconess who there
presided, birch in hand, to control the rising generation in Sunday
meetings, yet the urchins are now herded on the pulpit- and
gallery-stairs, with four constables to guard them from the allurements
of sin. And there sits Sin itself embodied in the shrinking form of some
humiliated man or woman, placed on a high stool in the principal aisle,
bearing the name of some dark crime written on paper and pinned to the
garments, or perhaps a Scarlet Letter on the breast.

Oh, the silence of this place of worship, after the solemn service sets
i