THE COUNTRY SUNDAY. 63 



dramatic way, and now imagine the elder and his family- 

 proceeding down the road as the Bethel congregation 

 gather. As he approaches they all ostentatiously turn 

 their backs. One or two of the other elders walk inside ; 

 being men of some education, they soften down the 

 appearance of their resentment by getting out of the way. 

 Groups of cottage people, on the contrary, rather come 

 nearer the road, and seem to want to make their senti- 

 ments coarsely visible. Such is the way with that layer 

 of society ; they put everything so very very crudely ; 

 they do not understand a gentle intimation, they express 

 their displeasure in the rudest manner, without any con- 

 sciousness that gruffness and brutality of manner de- 

 grades the righteous beneath the level of the wicked who 

 is accused. The women make remarks to each other. 

 Many of them had been visitors at the elder's house, 

 yet now they will not so much as say good morning to 

 his wife and family ; their children look over the wall 

 with stolid stare. Farther down the road the elder 

 meets the pastor on his road to chapel. The elder looks 

 the pastor straight in the face ; the pastor shuffles his eyes 

 over the hedge ; it is difficult to quite forget the good din- 

 ners, the bottles, and the pipes. The elder goes on, and 

 he and his family are picked up by a conveyance at the 

 cross-ways and carried to a place of worship in a distant 

 village. This is only a specimen, this is only the Sunday, 

 but the same process goes on all the week. The elder's 

 house, that was once the resort of half the people in the 

 village, is now deserted , no one looks in in passing ; the 

 farmers do not stop as they come back from market to 

 tell how much they have lost by their corn, or to lament 

 that So-and-so is going to grub his hops — bad times ; 

 the women do not come over of an afternoon with news 

 of births and rumours of marriages. One family, once 



