We stopped for a few minutes at the Carews’, who were as much surprised to see us as if we had been mermaids out of the sea, and begged us to give ourselves something warm to drink, and to change our boots the moment we got home.  Then we went on to the post-office.  Kate went in, but stopped, as she came out with our letters, to read a written notice securely fastened to the grocery door by four large carpet-tacks with wide leathers round their necks.

“Dear,” said she, exultantly, “there’s going to be a lecture to-night in the church,—­a free lecture on the Elements of True Manhood.  Wouldn’t you like to go?” And we went.

We were fifteen minutes later than the time appointed, and were sorry to find that the audience was almost imperceptible.  The dampness had affected the antiquated lamps so that those on the walls and on the front of the gallery were the dimmest lights I ever saw, and sent their feeble rays through a small space the edges of which were clearly defined.  There were two rather more energetic lights on the table near the pulpit, where the lecturer sat, and as we were in the rear of the church, we could see the yellow fog between ourselves and him.  There were fourteen persons in the audience, and we were all huddled together in a cowardly way in the pews nearest the door:  three old men, four women, and four children, besides ourselves and the sexton, a deaf little old man with a wooden leg.

The children whispered noisily, and soon, to our surprise, the lecturer rose and began.  He bowed, and treated us with beautiful deference, and read his dreary lecture with enthusiasm.  I wish I could say, for his sake, that it was interesting; but I cannot tell a lie, and it was so long!  He went on and on, until it seemed as if I had been there ever since I was a little girl.  Kate and I did not dare to look at each other, and in my desperation at feeling her quiver with laughter, I moved to the other end of the pew, knocking over a big hymn-book on the way, which attracted so much attention that I have seldom felt more embarrassed in my life.  Kate’s great dog rose several times to shake himself and yawn loudly, and then lie down again despairingly.

You would have thought the man was addressing an enthusiastic Young Men’s Christian Association.  He exhorted with fervor upon our duties as citizens and as voters, and told us a great deal about George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, whom he urged us to choose as our examples.  He waited for applause after each of his outbursts of eloquence, and presently went on again, in no wise disconcerted at the silence, and as if he were sure that he would fetch us next time.  The rain began to fall again heavily, and the wind wailed around the meeting-house.  If the lecture had been upon any other subject it would not have been so hard for Kate and me to keep sober faces; but it was directed entirely toward young men, and there was not a young man there.