When every one was seated, the minister climbed the steps to his high pulpit.  The sermon was always very long—­three hours at least.  The children could not understand what it was all about, and it was very hard for them to sit still and listen quietly.

Elizabeth was four years older than Hope, so she felt quite like a little woman.  She sat up beside her mother and looked at the minister almost all the time; but sometimes she had to wink hard to keep awake.  When she thought she could not let her feet hang down another minute, she would slip down to the footstool to rest.

Elizabeth was often ashamed of Hope, who could not sit still ten minutes.  She tried to listen to the sermon, but could not.  When she began to stir about a little, her mother shook her head at her.  She sat still for a few minutes, but was soon restless again.

Presently she began to be sleepy and laid her head upon her father’s arm for a nap.  Just then she felt something in his pocket.  A happy smile came over Hope’s face; she was wide-awake now.  Slipping her hand into the wide pocket, she drew out Mary Ellen and smoothed her wrinkled gown.

Master Brown’s thoughts were all on the sermon, and even Mistress Brown did not notice Hope for a little time.  When she did, what do you suppose she saw?  Hope was standing on the seat showing her doll to the little girl in the pew behind her.

Oh, how ashamed her mother was!  She pulled her little daughter down quickly and whispered, “Do you want the tithingman to come?  Well, sit down and listen.”  Taking Mary Ellen, she slipped the doll into her muff.

Little Hope did sit down and listen.  She did not even turn around when the kind lady behind them dropped a peppermint over the high-backed pew for her.  She was very much afraid of the tithingman, who sat on a high seat.  He had a long rod with a hard knob on one end and a squirrel’s tail on the other.

[Illustration:  The tithingman tickling the nodding lady]

When he saw a lady nodding during the sermon, he stepped around to her pew and tickled her face with the fur end of the rod.  She would waken with a start and be, oh! so ashamed.  She would be very glad the pew had such high sides to hide her blushing face.

Perhaps you think the boys who sat on the other side of the church had a good time.  But there was the tithingman again.  When he saw a boy whispering or playing, he rapped him on the head with the knob end of the rod.  The whispering would stop at once, for the rod often brought tears and left a headache.

Besides keeping the boys from playing and the grown people from going to sleep, the tithingman must turn the hourglass.  In those days very few people could afford clocks, but every one had an hourglass.  It took the fine sand just one hour to pour from the upper part of the glass into the lower part.

When the sand had all run through, the tithingman turned the glass over and the sand began to tell another hour.  The glass was always turned three times before the minister closed the service.  Then the men picked up their muskets and foot stoves, the women wrapped their long capes closely about them, and all went home.