nksgiving morning. We say only tolerably, some
seats being vacant, which seldom of a Sunday missed of occupants. The
rights of hospitality were allowed on this occasion to trench upon the
duties of public worship, and many a good wife with the servants, whom
no common storm or slight indisposition would have kept away, remained
at home to spread the board for expected guests. If there were some
whose stern principles condemned the practice as a carnality, they
were a small minority. Those whose fleshly appetites were to be
gratified by it took a different view of the subject very generally;
and as this was the condition of pretty much the whole community,
whose members figured now as hosts and now as guests, the verdict was
nearly unanimous in its favor. In truth, the due observance of the
day seemed to consist of two parts, worship and feasting; each was
necessary to the other to form a complement, and without both it would
have been jejune and unsatisfactory. Besides, this was the annual
period for the reunion of friends and relatives, parted for the
rest of the year, and in some instances considerable journeys were
undertaken in order once more to unite the severed circle and gather
again around the beloved board. Fathers and mothers, with smiles of
welcome, kissed their returned children; brothers and sisters joined
cordial hands and rushed into each other's embraces, and the placid
grandparents danced the little ones on their knees, and traced
resemblances to others. It would have been a cold and inhospitable
greeting, to be invited, after listening to a two hours' sermon, to
sit around a dinner not beyond the common. Not to such a feast did
stout-hearted and hard-headed Jonathan invite his friends. He rightly
understood that there was a carnal and a spiritual man, nor was he
disposed to neglect the claims of either. The earth was given to the
saints "with the fullness thereof," and he meant to have his portion.
Therefore it was that while one part of the family went to "meeting"
to pray, the other remained at home to--cook. Thus, by a judicious
division of duties the honored day was celebrated with befitting rites
and ceremonies.

After waiting for a reasonable time, until all who were expected to
attend were supposed to be in the house, the minister rose from his
seat, in the high, wine-glass shaped pulpit, over which hung, like the
sword of Damocles, by a cord, an immense sounding-board, considered
indispensabl