n to take their place, and when I
look back at the way Sunday used to be kept and the way it's kept now,
it's jest like bein' in another world. I hear folks talkin' about how
wicked the world's growin' and wishin' they could go back to the old
times, but it looks like to me there's jest as much kindness and
goodness in folks nowadays as there was when I was young; and as for
keepin' Sunday, why, I've noticed all my life that the folks that's
strictest about that ain't always the best Christians, and I reckon
there's been more foolishness preached and talked about keepin' the
Sabbath day holy than about any other one thing.

"I ricollect some fifty-odd years ago the town folks got to keepin'
Sunday mighty strict. They hadn't had a preacher for a long time, and
the church'd been takin' things easy, and finally they got a new
preacher from down in Tennessee, and the first thing he did was to
draw the lines around 'em close and tight about keepin' Sunday. Some
o' the members had been in the habit o' havin' their wood chopped on
Sunday. Well, as soon as the new preacher come, he said that Sunday
wood-choppin' had to cease amongst his church-members or he'd have 'em
up before the session. I ricollect old Judge Morgan swore he'd have
his wood chopped any day that suited him. And he had a load o' wood
carried down cellar, and the nigger man chopped all day long down in
the cellar, and nobody ever would 'a' found it out, but pretty soon
they got up a big revival that lasted three months and spread 'way out
into the country, and bless your life, old Judge Morgan was one o'
the first to be converted; and when he give in his experience, he told
about the wood-choppin', and how he hoped to be forgiven for breakin'
the Sabbath day.

"Well, of course us people out in the country wouldn't be outdone by
the town folks, so Parson Page got up and preached on the Fourth
Commandment and all about that pore man that was stoned to death for
pickin' up a few sticks on the seventh day. And Sam Amos, he says
after meetin' broke, says he, 'It's my opinion that that man was a
industrious, enterprisin' feller that was probably pickin' up
kindlin'-wood to make his wife a fire, and,' says he, 'if they wanted
to stone anybody to death they better 'a' picked out some lazy,
triflin' feller that didn't have energy enough to work Sunday or any
other day.' Sam always would have his say, and nothin' pleased him
better'n to talk back to the preachers and g