"I don't think the cases are parallel," objected Hatty. "I must have Kitzie, and must amuse her. My mother locked up all our toys on Saturday night."
"Yes, many mothers do, and pride themselves on it. And so, as children must and will have occupation, they are likely to eat apples, gingerbread, or whatever they can get hold of, to pass away the time. This makes them heavy and ill-natured, and they get to quarrelling."
"But think how strict the old Jewish law was! A man stoned to death for picking up sticks!"
"The world was in its infancy then; and at any rate, He who made the law had His own reasons for it. But we live under a new dispensation, and ours is a Christian, not a Jewish, Sabbath. I have a great dread of making it a disagreeable day to my children."
"But you can't deny," said Laura, joining the group with her baby, "that there is awful laxity in regard to the Sabbath nowadays."
"No, I do not deny it; there always is reaction after pressure. It is to be hoped that things will right themselves in time."
"Well, I wish the Bible had given explicit directions about everything."
"Hasn't it?"
"No, indeed. Here are you and Hatty, both good souls as ever lived, taking contrary views of so apparently plain a thing as to how to keep Sunday. Now, the promise to those who don't do their own ways, nor find their own pleasure, or speak their own words, staggers me as much as any admonition or threat could. Thousands of Christians will tell you this is their ideal of Sunday; but who lives up to it? Goodness! Think of the worldly talk that has gone on to-day among those who profess to be saints!"
"Now you go too far, Laura," said Belle.