I said: "Pa, you will lose on those
hogs. You ought not to do that on Sunday." He gave me a quick,
light, playful slap, saying: "Stop that, every time you say that, I do
lose."
I can see that a responsibility to God was the fundamental principle
in my father's life. After the negroes were freed, and we lived on
the farm, there was so much to do, especially for him, but there was
always a conveyance prepared to take his family to church and Sunday
School--I took the "New York Ledger". Mrs. Southworth wrote for it
then. 'Capitola', The Wrecker's Son, with other thrilling stories, were
so fascinating to me--The paper came late Saturday and I would rather
read it Sunday morning than go anywhere. One morning I took my
paper and went to the back of the orchard, thinking to get out of the
sound of my father's voice when he would call me to get ready for
church. I could just hear him but did not move. After reading my
paper, I returned to the house, Pa was just coming back with the rest
of the family from church. He looked at me with grief and anger in
his glance and said, "Never mind, you ungrateful girl, you cannot say
at the judgment Day, that your father did not provide a way for you
to go to church." I never did this again and never was free from remorse
for this ingratitude. I know how Dr. Johnson felt when he was
seen standing on a corner of the street with the sun beaming down
upon his bare head, when asked why he did that he said, "My father
had a book stand on this corner, when I was a boy once he asked me to
stand here in his place as he was sick.
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