But he kep right on, bein’ determined to have his say.

“You can foller the Sabbath we keep right back, straight as a string, to planet worship.  Before old Babylon ever riz up at all, to say nothin’ of fallin’, the dwellers in the Euphrates Valley kep a Sabbath.  They spozed there wuz seven planets, and one day wuz give to each of them.  And Saturday, the old Jewish Sabbath, wuz given to Saturn, cruel as ever he could be if the ur in his name wuz changed to e.  In those days it wuz not forbidden to work in that day, but supposed to be unlucky.

“Some as Ma regards Friday.”

It wuz known that Miss Widrig wouldn’t begin a mite of work Fridays, not even hemin’ a towel or settin’ up a sock or mitten.

And, sez he, “When we come down through history to the Hebrews, we find it a part of the Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments.

“In the second book of the Bible we find the reason given for keeping the Sabbath is, the Lord rested on that day.  In the fifth book we find the reason given is the keeping of a memorial for the deliverance out of Egypt.

“Now this commandment only forbids working on that day; no matter what else you do, you are obeying the fourth commandment.  According to that command, you could go to the World’s Fair, or wherever you had a mind to, if you did not work.

“The Puritan Sabbath wuz a very different one from that observed by Moses and the Prophets, which wuz mainly a day of rest.”

“Wall, I know,” sez Miss Yerden, “that the only right way to keep the Sabbath is jest as we do, go to meetin’ and Sunday-school, and do jest as we do.”

Sez Lihu, “Maybe the people to whom the law wuz delivered didn’t understand its meaning so well as we do to-day, after the lapse of so many centuries, so well as you do, Miss Yerden.”

We all looked coldly at Lihu; we didn’t approve of his talk.  But Miss Yerden looked tickled, she is so blind in her own conceit, and Lihu spoke so polite to her, she thought he considered her word as goin’ beyend the Bible.

Then Lophemia Pegrum spoke up, and sez she—­

“Don’t you believe in keeping the Sabbath, Lihu?”

“Yes, indeed, I do,” sez he, firm and decided.  “I do believe in it with all my heart.  It is a blessed break in the hard creakin’ roll of the wheel of Labor, a needed rest—­needed in every way for tired and worn-out brain and muscle, soul and body; but I believe in telling the truth,” sez he.

He always wuz a very truthful boy—­born so, we spoze.  Almost too truthful at times, his ma used to think.  She used to have to whip him time and agin for bringin’ out secret things before company, such as borrowed dishes, and runnin’s of other females, and such.

So we wuz obliged to listen to his remarks with a certain amount of respect, for we knew that he meant every word that he said, and we knew that he had studied deep into ancient history, no matter how much mistook we felt that he wuz.