The gates ajar. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

The Gates Ajar. 65
I like caramary seeds, though; mother always
gives'em to me in meeting'cause I'm a good
girl. Don't you wish you were a good girl,
Cousin Mary, so's you could have some? Besides, I've got on my best hat and my buttonboots. Besides, there used to be a real funny
little boy up in meeting at home, and he gave
ne a little tin dorg once over the top the pew.
Only mother made me give it back. 0, you
ought to seen the man that preached down at
Uncle Calvin's! I tell you he was a bully old
minister, - e banged the Bible like everything! "
" There's a devotional spirit for you! " I said
to her mother.
"Well," she answered, laughing, "it is better than that she should be left to play
dolls and eat preserves, and be punished
for disobedience. Sunday would invariably
become a guilty sort of holiday at that rate.
Now, caraways or'bully old ministers' notwithstanding, she carries to bed with her a
dim notion that this has been holy time and
pleasant time. Besides, the associations of a
church-going childhood, if I can manage them
genially, will be a help to her when she is
older. Come, Faith! go and pull off Cousin
E