AND HOW I HAVE CAUGHT MY FISH 109 



unmindful of Sunday's terror, so I could not always 

 give, although the collecting saint with one eye on 

 the box and the other heavenwards gave me time 

 enough. The everlasting seconds he held it to 

 me and the hatred of my little heart toward that 

 man are as fresh in my memory as though it were 

 but yesterday. 



The tales of sudden ailments that my mother 

 listened to about chapel-time on Sundays were 

 infinitely more pathetic than any of those I told 

 to keep me away from school. Which religion, 

 how much of it, how little of it, is good for us ? 

 None can lay down this law ; for no two persons 

 can becomingly carry the same load of it. Little 

 folks can best learn most of what they need in the 

 fields and woods with dad ; the sun will be sure 

 to shine on such companionship ; and it is by 

 mother's knees they can understand, as nowhere 

 else, the crowning lesson. There would be no 

 bogies then. My mother often told me about 

 fairies when I stayed home from chapel, and I 

 understood her even when she spoke in the softest 

 voice, yet I never could understand where " Jeru- 

 salem the Golden " was whether near, far off, or 

 in Heaven although the preacher spoke loudly 

 and thumped. 



