It was a characteristically Western scene.

The women were rigidly on one side of the school-room, the men as rigidly on the other; the front seats were occupied by squirming boys and girls in their Sunday splendor.
On the back, to the right, were the young men, in their best vests, with paper collars and butterfly neckties, with their coats unbuttoned, their hair plastered down in a fascinating wave on their brown foreheads.

Not a few were in their shirt-sleeves.

The older men sat immediately between the youths and boys, talking in hoarse whispers across the aisles about the state of the crops and the county ticket, while the women in much the same way conversed about children and raising onions and strawberries.

It was their main recreation, this Sunday meeting.
"Brethren!" rang out the imperious voice of the minister, "let us pray." The audience thoroughly enjoyed the Elder's prayer.