They found some queer old houses that were odd enough. Mr. Leverett said they were almost two hundred years old, and that at first the place kept the old Indian name, Naumkeag. But the Reverend Francis Higginson gave it a new name out of the Bible—"In Salem also is His tabernacle." The early pilgrims built a chapel at once.
"How close the houses are!"
It was a row that had survived the hand of improvement. There was a huge central chimney-stack, big enough for a modern factory, and the house seemed built around it. The second story overhung the first, and in some of them were small dormer windows looking like bird houses. And the little panes of greenish glass seemed to make windows all framework.
Cynthia was much interested in the Roger Williams house, and the story of the old minister.
"Why, I thought religion made people good and pleasant——" Then she checked herself, for often Cousin Elizabeth was not pleasant. And she seemed more religious than Cousin Eunice. And Cousin Chilian rarely scolded or said a cross word—he never talked about religion, but he went to church on Sunday; they all did. She studied the Catechism, she could learn easily when she had a mind to, but she didn't understand it at all. She shocked Elizabeth by her irreverent questions. There was the old horn-book primer with—
| "In Adam's fall |
| We sinned all." |
"I don't see how that could be when we were not there!" she said almost defiantly.
"It means the nature we inherited."
"But I don't think that fair!"
"You don't know, you never can understand until you are in a state of grace. Don't ask such impertinent questions. You are a little heathen child."