ather and Grandmother and
go on the side, but we won't have to always. Abbie Clark, Mary Field and
I think we will join at the communion in September. Grandmother says she
hopes we realize what a solemn thing it is. We are fifteen years old so
I think we ought to. No one who hears Dr. Daggett say in his beautiful
voice, "I now renounce all ways of sin as what I truly abhor and choose
the service of God as my greatest privilege," could think it any
trifling matter. I feel as though I couldn't be bad if I wanted to be,
and when he blesses them and says, "May the God of the Everlasting
Covenant keep you firm and holy to the end through Jesus Christ our
Lord," everything seems complete. He always says at the close, "And when
they had sung an hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives." Then he
gives out the hymn, beginning:

"According to Thy gracious word,
In deep humility,
This will I do, my dying Lord
I will remember Thee."

And the last verse:

"And when these failing lips grow dumb,
And mind and memory flee,
When in Thy kingdom Thou shalt come,
Jesus remember me."

[Illustration: Hon. Francis Granger, Mr. Gideon Granger]

Deacon Taylor always starts the hymn. Deacon Taylor and Deacon Tyler sit
on one side of Dr. Daggett and Deacon Clarke and Deacon Castle on the
other. Grandfather and Grandmother joined the church fifty-one years ago
and are the oldest living members. She says they have always been glad
that they took this step when they were young.

_August_ 17.--There was a celebration in town to-day because the Queen's
message was received on the Atlantic cable. Guns were fired and church
bells rung and flags were waving everywhere. In the evening there was a
torchlight procession and the town was all lighted up except Gibson
Street. Allie Antes died this morning, so the people on that street kept
their houses as usual. Anna says that probably Allie Antes was better
prepared to die than any other little girl in town. Atwater hall and the
academy and the hotel were more brilliantly illuminated than any other
buildings. Grandfather saw something in a Boston paper that a minister
said in his sermon about the Atlantic cable and he wants me to write it
down in my journal. This is it: "The two hemispheres are now
successfully united by means of the electric wire, but what is it, after
all, compared with the instantaneous communication between the Throne of
Divine Grace and the he