SUNDA y LA IVS. 2/ 



Men, women, and children were soberly wend- 

 ing their waj* to meeting, keeping step as it 

 were to the slow tolling of the bell, and happy 

 indeed were these hill-town people when there 

 was not heard the discordant clang from a rival 

 belfry, but all of them were assembled in " the 

 old meeting-house " as one flock under one 

 shepherd. 



In the olden times it would have been very 

 wicked to ride on the Sabbath through this 

 country on horseback. Indeed, I can well re- 

 member when such a practice would not have 

 been tolerated in the immediate neighorhood of 

 Boston. Riding and driving were both sinful, 

 but the former was reprehensible in a higher 

 degree. Sixty-five years ago no one would 

 have dared to mount a horse on the Sabbath, 

 and I recollect witnessing the arrest of a coun- 

 tryman who having sold his load of wood on 

 Saturday, was unable to return on account of 

 the rain until Sunday morning. The excuse 

 was not admitted and he was locked up until 

 Monday. This happened six miles from Bos- 

 ton in Dorchester, from whence came the first 

 colony to these hill-towns and settled itself at 

 Windsor. Its early history is an instructive 

 study. It may aid us in getting rid of some 



