Page:Steadfast Heart.djvu/35

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

THE STEADFAST HEART

Congregational church, the wealthy brick Baptist, and the yellow Universalist—and all these edifices of worship have spacious basements ordained to the uses of the church sociable and chicken pie supper. On the west side, at the very top of the hill, is the Catholic church, and at the very bottom the rather shabby and unpainted United Brethren. Nobody seems to know just who it is that makes up the membership of the United Brethren, yet it continues in spite of lack of bell and steeple…. Sabbath mornings in Rainbow, especially in late spring or early autumn are lovely, restful hours. Somehow the air seems sweeter for the quiet and one has time to be glad he is alive. Rainbow’s church bells mingle in a gracious sound to call all sects and creeds to old-fashioned worship.

One sees Rainbow emerge at the ringing of the “first bell,” father and mother walking ahead, dressed for the day. Father carries Bible and hymnal tightly under his right arm and walks with a manner which is not his on secular days. Nobody’s manner of a Sunday is his manner of a Tuesday….

There is a square at the eastern end of the Center Line Bridge where there is a town pump surrounded by an iron railing, and where, on a Saturday night, the band gives its weekly concert…. Main Street parallels the river, one

23