CHAPTER FIVE

The Church Service

At nine o'clock that morning, the church bell began to ring, which meant that it was time for everyone to gather to hear the minister, Mr Sprague, speak. The Sunday-school children would all join their families to listen to him. And it was always the same, that while he spoke to the village people and led them in prayer, the parents would quietly try to keep their children from behaving badly. Of course, Sid and Mary enjoyed listening to Mr Sprague, so Aunt Polly never had trouble with them in church. But Tom would always have to be seated far away from the window so he wouldn't spend the whole time looking outside.

The whole village was slowly entering the church and taking their seats: the young, the middle-aged, the old, the rich and the poor. Everyone was there, including Mrs Douglas, who lived alone in the big house on Cardiff Hill. She was one of the richest people in the village. Even though she smiled and was generally a very kind person, Tom always thought she looked lonely since her husband died a few years ago. All of the children were wearing their best clothing. And the pretty young girls all looked prettier than usual, which also kept the boys from paying attention to Mr Sprague; all of the boys, except for Willie Mufferson, who was always "well behaved". None of the children liked him, but he was a favorite among the adults.

Everyone now became quiet at the sound of the bell ringing again. It was time for Mr Sprague to begin. As usual, they started by singing a little. Then this would be followed by meeting announcements for the week. And finally, they would say many prayers: prayers for the church, for the people of the village, for the village itself, for America, and for people in countries all over the world.

Tom was bored, and it took all of his strength to keep from falling asleep. He decided to concentrate on an insect that landed on the seat in front of him. It started to slowly and carefully clean itself with its legs. Tom couldn't understand this, because he didn't like to clean himself so carefully. He was always in a hurry to play. He wanted to pick the insect up, but knew that his aunt would punish him if he did this during Mr Sprague's prayer. But as his prayer came closer and closer to ending, Tom's hand moved closer and closer toward the insect. And at the last word, Tom put it between his hands. However, Aunt Polly made him set it free.

But church didn't end there. Mr Sprague began to talk about something else Tom couldn't understand. The minister mostly read from a book. And the only thing Tom could ever remember from the book was how many pages had been read. But this morning was different. Mr Sprague spoke about his hopes for the world in the future. He hoped for world peace, where all nations, both rich and poor, strong and weak, would join together in friendship. This was interesting to Tom. He imagined the strong countries as wild animals and the weak countries as farm animals. He imagined himself playing with all of these animals together, without any fear. And he found himself agreeing strongly with Mr Sprague's wishes for the future of the world.

But soon the minister began to talk about other things that were very uninteresting to Tom. He tried to listen, but his thoughts would easily wander to some other idea, such as the things he had in his pocket. He remembered that he had a little box with an insect inside. He took it out to play with it, but the first thing the insect did was bite Tom on the finger. Tom dropped it on the floor and it landed on its back. Tom noticed that it couldn't get back on its feet. He wanted to help it, but it was too far away and his aunt would get angry with him if he didn't pay full attention to the minister.

Suddenly, Tom saw a dog come into the church. The dog looked just as bored as Tom. He too wanted something fun to do. He saw the insect on the floor and became excited. He decided to play with it. He walked in a circle around the insect and made little noises at it. Then he tried to smell the insect by putting his nose near it. And just like Tom's finger, the insect bit the dog on the nose. The dog cried out in pain and ran away from the insect.

Everyone who had seen what happened laughed at the dog's foolishness. The dog was angry and embarrassed. And he went back to the insect and made angry sounds at it this time. But after a while he became bored again and found a piece of paper on the ground, which he started to play with. He did this for a few minutes and then got tired. He decided to lie down for a while, but having forgotten the insect, he sat down on top of it; a few seconds later he was running around the church and crying out in pain. His owner quickly put the dog outside and took his seat again, silently begging the minister's pardon. Tom could still hear the dog crying outside as it ran away from the church.

Mr Sprague was upset about being interrupted. He angrily waited for everyone to stop laughing. It took a long time before everyone was quiet again. But soon Mr Sprague continued with his prayer. Every once in a while laughing could be heard, but the minister did his best not to pay attention to it. The people were happy to find that he only had a few more things to say, because they were ready for church to be over, so they could enjoy the rest of their Sunday. Tom left the church feeling very satisfied. He thought he wouldn't mind going there if it would be this interesting every Sunday. The only thing he wasn't happy about was having his insect stolen by that silly dog.

(end of section)