The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

402 HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
asleep, the youngest boy has tried to catch flies, and the rest
of her audience have paid some heed. It is now time to close
the religious exercises of the Sabbath, by reading the Sacred
Scriptures and joining in family prayer. This service has the
truth and fervor of humble worshippers. Piety and love are
laid on the altar; and the concluding Amen testifies to a
Sabbath spent in the fear of God and the love of man. The
father and sons now repair to the barn, and the milking is
soon finished. By this time the sun has set; and, as if conscience had set with it, any secular pursuit now seems half
allowable. The wood for to-morrow's washing is carried in;
the great kettle is filled with water: the kindlings are put in
the corner; and everything is ready for the earliest start.
The mother and daughters, who have not dared to wash the
breakfast or dinner things while the sun was up, now begin
that operation; and then get all the clothes together which
must be washed, and put them in soak. The great kettle is
now hung on; and it almost seems as if Monday morning had
arrived. The eldest son knows it has not, and knows there
is a Sunday evening yet to come; and, full of silent thoughts
and tender emotions, he slips out, in full dress, at seven
o'clock, to'drop in' accidentally at neighbor A.'s, whose
blooming daughter of seventeen he likes to look at. If he
can get her to go and help him sing at Mr. B.'s for an hour
with some of the Sunday choir, why, then what? Any visiting on Sunday evening, except for courting or practising
singing by the choir, being positively forbidden, it somehow
always happened that the choir would meet on Sunday evening; and there was sure to be a remarkably full attendance!
Thus the'singing-school' was the Newport and Saratoga of
the time. Recreation of some sort every human being must
have, if he would thrive. He claims it as Nature's law.
Our Puritan Fathers needed recreation to lubricate the joints
of life. While they have been singing at Mr. B.'s, the loghut has not been without its music. The parents have led,
and the children followed, in some of the good old psalmtunes which have come down from former generations. At
half-past eight o'clock, the candle is put out; and the day of