Bramble-bushes seem to thrive on the bodies below, and there is no
flower in the little yard, save a few golden-rods, which flaunt their
gaudy inodorous color under the lee of the northern wall.
New England country-livers have as yet been very little inoculated with
the sentiment of beauty; even the doorstep to the church is a wide flat
stone, that shows not a single stroke of the hammer. Within, the
simplicity is even more severe. Brown galleries run around three sides
of the old building, supported by timbers, on which you still trace,
under the stains from the leaky roof, the deep scoring of the woodman's
axe.
Below, the unpainted pews are ranged in square forms, and by age have
gained the color of those fragmentary wrecks of cigar-boxes which you
see upon the top shelves in the bar-rooms of country taverns. The
minister's desk is lofty, and has once been honored with a coating of
paint;--as well as the huge sounding-board, which to your great
amazement protrudes from the wall at a very dangerous angle of
inclination over the speaker's head. As the Squire's pew is the place of
honor to the right of the pulpit, you have a little tremor yourself at
sight of the heavy sounding-board, and cannot forbear indulging in a
quiet feeling of relief when the last prayer is said.
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