CHAPTER IX
RUPERT’S SUNDAY RIDE.
“This day belongs to God alone;
He chooses Sunday for his own;
And we must neither work nor play,
Because it is the sabbath-day.”
Every morning, at the breakfast-table, each one repeated a text of Scripture. They selected their texts alphabetically, each text beginning with the same letter. They began with A, and went on daily with each letter until they got through the alphabet. Rupert did not like this. He could not see the use of it, he said. But the truth was, he did not want the trouble of learning the text.
Mr. Penrose knew that Rupert was to be with them but a short time, and he was anxious to teach him something good while he had the opportunity. He felt sorry for the poor boy, who had learned so little of God’s word, and who had never been taught to make any difference between the sabbath and other days. Rupert often gave Mr. and Mrs. Penrose trouble; but they bore it patiently, in hope of doing him some good.
One Sunday the snow lay deep upon the ground, but there was a good path down the hill. Alfred set off for church with his papa, brothers, and Rupert. It was too cold for little Flora to go that day. When they got about half way to church Rupert found that he had left his pocket-handkerchief. Like most careless boys, Rupert was always losing his pocket-handkerchief. Instead of putting it back in his pocket, after using it, he would lay it by him in the chair on which he sat, and leave it there when he got up. Rupert’s pocket-handkerchief was always to be picked up.
“So, as I have said, when he was half way to church Rupert had to go back for his pocket-handkerchief. The family walked slowly toward the church, thinking that he would overtake them: but he did not; and Mr. Penrose waited for him upon the step. As he stood there, however, he saw Rupert riding in a sleigh, through a street which crossed the one on which the church stood, with John Strong, a boy with whom he had formed a great intimacy, very much against the wishes of his uncle and aunt.