“And as for the work of carryin’ folks back and forth to it, meetin’-housen have to run by work—­hard work, too.  Preachin’, and singin’, and ringin’ bells, and openin’ doors, and lightin’ gas, and usherin’ folks in, and etc., etc., etc.

“And horse-cars and steam-cars have to run to and frow; conductors, and brakemen, and firemen, and engineers, and etc., etc.

“And horses have to be harnessed and worked hard, and coachmen, and drivers, and men and wimmen have to work hard Sundays.  Yes, indeed.

“Now, my sister-in-law, Jane Lanfear, works harder Sundays than any day out of the seven.  They take a place with thirty cows on it, and she and Jim, bein’ ambitious, do almost all the work themselves.

“Every Sunday mornin’ Jane gets up, and she and Jim goes out and milks fifteen cows apiece, and then Jim drives them off to pasture and comes back and harnesses up and carries the milk three miles to a cheese factory, and comes back and does the other out-door chores.

“And Jane gets breakfast, and gets up the three little children, and washes ’em and dresses ’em, and feeds the little ones to the table.  And after breakfast she does up all her work, washes her dishes and the immense milk-cans, sweeps, cleans lamps and stoves, makes beds, etcetry, and feeds the chickens, and ducks, and turkeys.  And by that time it is nine o’clock.  Then she hurries round and washes and combs the three children, curls the hair of the twin girls, and then gets herself into her best clothes, and by that time she is so beat out that she is ready to drop down.

“But she don’t; she lifts the children into the democrat, climbs her own weary form in after ’em, and takes the youngest one in her lap.  And Jim, havin’ by this time got through with his work and toiled into his best suit, they drive off, a colt follerin’ ’em, and Jim havin’ to get out more’n a dozen times to head it right, and makin’ Jane wild with anxiety, for it is a likely colt.

“Wall, they go four milds and a half to the meetin’-house—­there hain’t no Free-well Baptist nearer to ’em, and they are strong in the belief, and awful sot on that’s bein’ the only right way.  So they go to class-meetin’ first, and both talk for quite a length of time; they are quite gifted, and are called so.  And then they set up straight through the sermon, and that Free-well Baptist preaches more’n a hour, hot or cold weather, and then they both teach a large class of children, and what with takin’ care of the three restless children, and their own weariness on the start, they are both beat out before they start for home.  And Jane has a blindin’ headache.

“But she must keep up, for she has got to git the three babies home safe, and then there is dinner to get, and the dishes to wash, and the housework, and the out-door work to tend to, and what with her headache, and her tired-out nerves and body, and the work and care of the babies, Jane is cross as a bear—­snaps everybody up, sets a bad pattern before her children and Jim—­and, in fact, don’t get over it and hain’t good for anything before the middle of the week.