Religion was not troubling us: we went dutifully every Sunday to the
green-and-white schoolhouse under the tall spruce trees, and heard a
sermon preached by a young man from the college, who had a deep and
intimate knowledge of Amos and Elisha and other great men long dead,
and sometimes we wished he would tell us more about the people who
are living now and leave the dead ones alone. But it is always safer
to speak of things that have happened long ago, and aspersions may be
cast with impunity on Ahab and Jezebel and Balak. There is no danger
that they will have friends on the front seat, who will stop their
subscriptions to the building fund because they do not believe in
having politics introduced into the church.

The congregations were small, particularly on the hot afternoons, for
many of our people did not believe in going to church when the weather
was not just right. Indeed, there had been a serious discussion in the
synod of one of the largest churches on the question of abolishing
prayers altogether in the hot weather; and I think that some one gave
notice of a motion that would come up to this effect at the annual
meeting. No; religion was not a live topic. There were evidently many
who had said, as did one little girl who was leaving for her holidays,
"Good-bye, God--we are going to the country."

One day a storm of excitement broke over us, and for a whole
afternoon upset the calm of our existence. Four hardy woodmen came
down the road with bright new axes, and began to cut down the
beautiful trees which had taken so many years to grow and which made
one of the greatest beauties of the beach. It was some minutes before
the women sitting on their verandas realized what was happening; but
no army ever mobilized quicker for home defense than they, and they