congregation." The wretched boy who had caused all the commotion and
disgrace was of course uninjured by his fall, but a final settlement at
home between father and son on account of this sacrilegious piece of church
disturbance made the unhappy would-be tight-rope walker wish that he had at
least broken his arm instead of his father's hat and his mother's pride and
the peace of the congregation.

The seats were sometimes on four sides of these pews, but oftener on three
sides only, thus at least two thirds of the pew occupants did not face the
minister. The pew-seats were as narrow and uncomfortable as the plebeian
benches, though more exclusive, and, with the high partition walls, quite
justified the comment of a little girl when she first attended a service in
one of these old-fashioned, square-pewed churches. She exclaimed in dismay,
"What! must I be shut up in a closet and sit on a shelf?" Often elderly
people petitioned to build separate small pens of pews with a single wider
seat as "through the seats being so very narrow" they could not sit in
comfort.

The seats were, until well into this century, almost universally hung on
hinges, and could be turned up against the walls of the pew, thus enabling
the standing congregation to lean for support against the sides of the pews
during the psalm-singing and the long, long prayers.

"And when at last the loud Amen
Fell from aloft, how quickly then
The seats came down with heavy rattle,
Like musketry in fiercest battle."

This noise of slamming pew-seats could easily be heard over half a mile
away from the meeting-house in the summer time, for the perverse boys