1 
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 roadto 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 weck. 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 
