It was determined, in family conclave, that the lecture should be at four o’clock, after which all were to sit down to a meat supper, the meats having been roasted beforehand, and served up cold, with hot tea and coffee.
“This will be the first time Mr. Goodhue was ever here, Sally,” said Ben, “and the first time, I expect, in his life, that he was ever invited anywhere to eat and not offered spirit. We’ve got turkeys, ducks, and chickens, enough of everything. We’ll let him and all the rest know that it is not for the sake of saving that we don’t put spirit on the table; and you know what Bradish set out to say at the husking, if Joe Griffin hadn’t knocked the wind out of him.”
Seats were made in the parlor, kitchen, and porch for the audience; but the spare room, which was most elaborately finished, where Uncle Isaac had displayed his utmost skill in carved and panel-work, and in which was the buffet, was carefully prepared for the reception of the minister. There were curtains to the best bed and windows, which Sally had woven and bleached as white as snow; the bed-ticks were also woven by her, and filled with the feathers of wild geese she had picked herself. The sheets and pillow-cases were scented with orange balm. On the mantel-piece were some beautiful shells and coral, which Ben had brought home from sea; the secretary, also, which his father had given him, inlaid with various kinds of wood, was in this room. As to the remaining furniture, it was of the homeliest kind, as Ben had not purchased any since his means had increased. The looking-glass was six inches by eight in size, and the chairs were bottomed with ash splints. In those old times, instead of painting or carpeting floors, they kept them white by scouring and covering with sand. It was the custom of housewives, on important occasions, to cover the floor with sand, and then, with the point of a hemlock broom, make marks in the sand resembling the backbone of a herring. Sometimes they deposited the sand in little heaps, like pepper on the surface of a ham, and representing various figures; but Sally Merrithew went far beyond this. She covered the floor of the minister’s room with the finest of sand, and then, with her fingers, made the exact impress of a little child’s naked foot in different places; also the representation of star-fish, diamonds, horses, oxen, and various other things. This was a vast deal of work to bestow upon a thing that was destroyed the moment you stepped on it; but it looked very pretty when you first opened the door, and that was enough for Sally. If Parson Goodhue only looked at it once, she was more than satisfied.
Clocks were not common then, and time was kept by hour and minute glasses; and there would not have been any other time-keeper on Elm Island had not Ben’s profession as a sailor put him in the way of having a watch; but whenever he took his watch with him, Sally resorted to the hour glass, and the sun-mark in the window.
When the day arrived, Ben and Charlie went over in the Perseverance, as she was now ready for sea, and returned with Joe and his crew, Captain Rhines and his girls, Uncle Isaac, the Hadlocks, and others, among whom was Fred Williams. The most important personage of all was Parson Goodhue. The saucy little craft, her sails limed and snow-white, her decks white as a holy-stone and sand could make them, her masts scraped and slushed, with a little yellow ochre in the grease, her hull, mastheads, and spars gayly painted, and rigging fresh tarred, seemed, as she flung the foam from her bows and shot into the little harbor, proud of her burden.
The parson was brought ashore from the vessel in the large canoe; and as the beach was wet, Ben took him in his arms and set him down on the grass ground, without ruffling a feather; here he was met and welcomed by Sally.
Our young readers might be interested if we should describe the dress of this good man, whose arrival had excited so much interest, and caused such a commotion, on Elm Island; it was the usual dress of the ministers of that day, and quite remarkable.
A dark-blue broadcloth coat of the finest material, with a broad back, wide skirts, and a very long waist. It reached below the knees, the front edges on both sides being cut to the segment of a circle, from the end of the collar to the bottom of the skirts, the two edges just meeting in the middle over the abdomen, there fastened, when fastened at all, with a single hook and eye; the collar was quite wide, and laid over flat on the back; there was one row of black enamelled buttons in front, about the size of an old-fashioned Spanish milled dollar, with button holes to correspond to the size of the buttons, but which were never used, as the coat was never fastened except by the single hook and eye. The vest was of black kerseymere, reaching some six inches or more below the hips, with broad and deep pocket-flaps on each side, covering a capacious pocket. It was buttoned from the hips, close to the throat, with enamelled buttons as large as an English shilling, and finished round the neck with a narrow collar, three fourths of an inch wide. The lower corners of the vest were rounded off, so as always to hang open. To complete the dress, was a pair of dark-blue small clothes, buttoned tight around the body above the hips, and worn without suspenders, as they had not then been invented. A pair of heavy black silk stockings reached above the knee, under the small clothes, which were buttoned down close over the stockings below the knee, and there fastened by silver buckles. On his feet he wore a pair of round-toed shoes with short quarters, and fastened by a pair of large silver buckles that covered the whole of the instep. On his head he wore a large full-bottomed wig of silvery whiteness, fitting close to the head, the hair from the whole head being shaved twice a week, to permit the wig to fit close to the head. The back part of this wig, on the “bottom,” as it was technically called, was very large, and consisted of a mass of curls, of the kind that young ladies now call frizzled; and as the collar of the vest was narrow, and the collar of the coat laid flat on the back, the bottom of the wig could reach quite near to the shoulders without interfering with any part of the dress. Surmounting all was a large three-cornered cocked hat of the finest beaver, but without any nap; this, with cravat and ample bands under the chin, both of snowy whiteness, formed the costume of the venerable man, who, on the beach of Elm Island, received the congratulations of Sally and Mrs. Hadlock, and was regarded by these rebellious Yankees, who had recently flung off the yoke of monarchy, with a veneration as great as that of a true-bred Briton for his anointed king.
In cold weather this dress was supplemented by a long blue broadcloth cloak, with a small cape, thrown over the shoulders, but never fastened in front. In this dress, with no covering for his legs from the knee to the foot except silk tight-fitting stockings, without boots or buskins (the latter being much worn by all except seamen, to keep the snow out of the shoes), he preached sermons three quarters of an hour in length, in a meeting-house without fire, and quite open.