id when I used to come to town with father and
mother. Makes me think of a body with a new soul in it. Wonder if the
old bell's still up yonder in the steeple.

"Speakin' o' that bell reminds me o' Martin Luther Wilson and the time
he kept it from ringin'. Now, wait till we're fairly outside o'town,
and I'll tell you about it."

When all signs of town were fully half a mile behind us the story
began.

"That church you saw back yonder, honey," she said, "was built when
the Rev. Samuel Wilson was the pastor, and as soon as it was done and
the bell put up in the belfry, Brother Wilson said that bell had to
ring every Saturday mornin' to call the children of the congregation
together in the basement o' the church to receive religious
instruction. He'd been visitin' amongst the church-members, and he'd
found out that some o' the children didn't know the Ten Commandments
or the Shorter Catechism or the Lord's Prayer, and when he asked one
child what a foreign missionary was, the little thing thought a minute
and says she, 'Why, it's a rabbit, ain't it? 'Well, of course Brother
Wilson was clean scandalized, and says he, 'Such a state of things is
a disgrace to a civilized community. And,' says he, 'if the parents of
the church haven't got time to instruct their children, I'll do it
myself, for it's part of my pastoral duty to feed the lambs of this
flock as well as the sheep.'

"Well, of course the parents had no objection to havin' the children
taught. I ricollect old Mis' Zerilda Moore said that if Brother Wilson
could teach her boy Joe to say the Ten Commandments, he was welcome to
the job, for all her time was taken up tryin' to git Joe to keep a few
of 'em. The little gyirls didn't mind goin' to Saturday-mornin' Sunday
School, as they called it, but the boys objected mightily, especially
Brother Wilson's boys, Martin Luther and John Calvin. And Martin
Luther says, says he, 'It ain't fair to take a lamb's play-time away
from it to feed it on such fodder as that Shorter Catechism.' Says he,
'Any healthy lamb can stand the Ten Commandments and the Lord's
Prayer; I can say 'em frontwards and backwards myself, but,' says he,
'when it comes to the catechism, there'll be some lambs missin' from
this flock when Saturday mornin' comes.'

"Well, one mornin' not long after this, the old sexton went to ring
the bell for the children to come to the church, and he pulled the
rope and pulled the rope and couldn't make a sound; and