elp their
mother Bob would sit down and try to imitate what she had done. Failing,
he would fall headlong into the inevitable chopsticks, beating it out
with the air of a master.

It was the piano that brought to Betty's realization the first real
meaning of the Sabbath day. Bob came down early and went at the piano as
usual banging out chopsticks, and a one-fingered arrangement of "The
Long, Long Trail," while his mother was getting breakfast. Betty was
making the coffee, proud of the fact that she had learned how. But Bob
had accomplished only a brief hint of his regular program when the music
stopped suddenly and Betty glanced through the kitchen door to see Ma
standing with her hand on her son's shoulder and a look on her face she
had not seen before: It was quite gentle, but it was decided:

"No, Bob! We won't have that kinda music on Sunday," she said. "This is
God's day, an' we'll have all we can rightly do to keep it holy without
luggin' in week-day music to make us forget it. You just get t' work an'
learn 'Safely Through Another Week,' an' if you can't play it right you
get Lizzie to teach you."

Bob pouted:

"There ain't nothin' wrong with chopsticks, Ma. 'Tain't got words to
it."

"Don't make any diffrence. It b'longs to weekdays an' fun, an' anyhow it
makes you think of other things, an' you can't keep your mind on God.
That's what Sunday was made fer, to kinda tone us up to God, so's we
won't get so far away in the week that we won't be any kind of ready for
heaven some time. An' anyhow, 'tisn't seemly. You better go learn your
Golden Text, Bob. The minister'll be disappointed if you don't have it
fine."

Betty stood by the window thoughtfully looking out. Was that what Sunday
was made for, or was it only a quaint idea of this original woman? She
wished she knew. Perhaps some time she would know the minister's wife
well enough to ask. She would have liked to ask Ma more about it, but
somehow felt shy. But Ma herself was started now, and when she came back
to the kitchen, as if she felt some explanation was due the new inmate
of the family, she said:

"I don't know how you feel about it. I know city folks don't always hold
to the old ways. But it always seemed to me God meant us to stick to
Sunday, and make it diff'rent from other days. I never would let my
children go visitin', nor play ball an' we always tried to have
something good for supper fixed the night before. I heard somebody say a
long