. If the
lecture had been upon any other subject it would not have been so hard
for Kate and me to keep sober faces; but it was directed entirely toward
young men, and there was not a young man there.

The children in front of us mildly scuffled with each other at one time,
until the one at the end of the pew dropped a marble, which struck the
floor and rolled with a frightful noise down the edge of the aisle where
there was no carpet. The congregation instinctively started up to look
after it, but we recollected ourselves and leaned back again in our
places, while the awed children, after keeping unnaturally quiet, fell
asleep, and tumbled against each other helplessly. After a time the man
sat down and wiped his forehead, looking well satisfied; and when we
were wondering whether we might with propriety come away, he rose again,
and said it was a free lecture, and he thanked us for our kind patronage
on that inclement night; but in other places which he had visited there
had been a contribution taken up for the cause. It would, perhaps, do no
harm,--would the sexton--But the sexton could not have heard the sound
of a cannon at that distance, and slumbered on. Neither Kate nor I had
any money, except a twenty-dollar bill in my purse, and some coppers in
the pocket of her water-proof cloak which she assured me she was
prepared to give; but we saw no signs of the sexton's waking, and as one
of the women kindly went forward to wake the children, we all rose and
came away.

After we had made as much fun and laughed as long as we pleased that
night, we became suddenly conscious of the pitiful side of it all; and
being anxious that every one should have the highest opinion of
Deephaven, we sent Tom Dockum early in the morning with an anonymous
note to the lecturer, whom he found without much trouble; but afterward
we were disturbed at hearing that he was going to repeat his lecture
that evening,--the wind having gone round to the northwest,--and I have
no doubt there were a good many women able to be out, and that he
harvested enough ten-cent pieces to pay his expenses without our help;
though he had particularly told us it was for "the cause," the evening
before, and that ought to have been a consolation.

_Cunner-Fishing_

One of the chief pleasures in Deephaven was our housekeeping. Going to
market was apt to use up a whole morning, especially if we went to the
fish-houses. We depended somewhat upon supplies f