"
He wore a gray hat, half-high in the crown, and a gray coat which
flapped his calves when he walked. His trousers were of a cut which
reached nearly to his armpits, but this fact was kept from the public
by a vest crawling well toward his knees. Yet he looked beautifully
tidy and well-dressed. His wife, who was not a Quaker, had by no
means such an air of simple grandeur.
Grandma Padgett and aunt Corinne, somewhat reluctantly followed by
Zene, were going to the Methodist church. Already its bell was
filling the air. But Robert hung back and asked if he might not go to
Quaker meeting.
"Thee couldn't sit and meditate," said William Sebastian.
Bobaday assured William Sebastian he could sit very still, and he
always meditated. When he ran after his grandmother to get her
consent, it occurred to him to find out from Zene how the pig-headed
man was, and if he looked as ugly as ever. But aunt Corinne scorned
the question, and quite flew af him for asking it.
The Methodist services Robert knew by heart: the open windows, the
high pulpit where the preacher silently knelt first thing, hymn books
rustling cheerfully, the hymn given out two lines at a time to be
sung by the congregation, then the kneeling of everybody and the
prayer, more singing, and the sermon, perhaps followed by an
exhortation, when the preacher talked loud enough for the boys
sitting out on the fence to hear every word.
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