Seceder. So our Sabbaths were usually spent in religious services at
home. These I enjoyed, as it aided my life-work of loving and thinking
about God, who seemed, to my mind, to have some special need of my
attention. Nothing was done on that day which could have been done the
day before, or could be postponed till the day after. Coffee grinding
was not thought of, and once, when we had no flour for Saturday's
baking, and the buckwheat cakes were baked the evening before and warmed
on Sabbath morning, we were all troubled about the violation of the
day.

There was a Presbyterian "meeting-house" two miles east of Wilkinsburg,
where a large, wealthy congregation worshipped. Rev. James Graham was
pastor, and unlike other Presbyterians, they never "profaned the
sanctuary" by singing "human compositions," but confined themselves to
Rouse's version of David's Psalms, as did our own denomination. This
aided that laxness of discipline which permitted Big Jane, Adaline and
brother William to attend sometimes, under care of neighbors. Once I was
allowed to accompany them.

I was the proud possessor of a pair of red shoes, which I carried rolled
up in my 'kerchief while we walked the two miles. We stopped in the
woods; my feet were denuded of their commonplace attire and arrayed in
white hose, beautifully clocked, and those precious slices, and my poor
conscience tortured about my vanity. The girls also exchanged theirs for
morocco slippers. We concealed our walking shoes under a mossy log and
proceeded to the meeting-house.

It was built in the form of a T, of hewn logs, and the whole structure,
both inside and out, was a combination of those soft grays and browns
with which nature colors wood, and in its close setting of primeval