Puritans Essay, Research Paper

It was forenoon, so I went to the kitchen for breakfast. It was still dark outside and all through the house except for the kitchen because female parent had a candle lit and placed on the tabular array. My male parent and female parent and my three brothers and one sister were sitting at the tabular array. They were all waiting on me to acquire at that place so we could eat. I sat down on the bench with no dorsum and I sat there stiff, consecutive, and tall because no slouching was allowed. I could non smile or speak until the approval had been asked. My pa was really rigorous on us kids about being on clip for breakfast. He would non get down the approval until all of us were present. After male parent blessed the nutrient, we could speak and laugh and eat. Our breakfast consisted of some fried, thin sliced salt porc and some hot maize staff of life with honey and a cup of milk to imbibe. Every forenoon, except on the Sabbath, Father discussed the jobs for the twenty-four hours with us. Father told all the brothers that we are traveling to plough the new field today. But before we did that we had to draw some hay down from the loft to feed the cattles. We so went to the woodpile and brought some wood up to the house for firing. While the older brothers where working in the field, my small sister played with my youngest brother who was merely two old ages old. They played in the pace with the Canis familiaris. When it got clip for dinner, me and my brothers came in from the field and went to a lean-to built on to the dorsum of the house to rinse up and comb our hair. My sister helped mother acquire everything ready for dinner. Mother called us all in for dinner and after we sat down Father said a supplication over the nutrient and we ate. It was Saturday and our holy twenty-four hours started at sundown on Saturday. After we ate, Father sat us all together and read from the Bible and so we went to bed. The following forenoon we were all awakened by the usual noises of female parent in the kitchen fixing breakfast. We knew that meant it was about clip to eat and so we would travel rapidly to the tabular array. After breakfast it was clip to travel to church. It was against Puritan jurisprudence to saddle the Equus caballuss on a Sunday because no 1 & # 8211 ; non even the Equus caballuss & # 8211 ; had to work on the Sabbath twenty-four hours. So we walked into town to the God’s acre. When we got near to the church female parent reminded each of us kids the importance of moving good during church. It was considered a shame for anyone to kip, slouch, turn around and look at the individual behind you, whisper or even laugh during church. One of our deacons stood in the dorsum of the room with a pole and tapped anyone on the shoulder who & # 8220 ; sinned & # 8221 ; during service. Father expected person of my age to be able to command my feelings and actions in a manner that would be delighting non merely to him, but most of import, to God. Sometimes this was really difficult to make be

cause our services would last at least two hours. By the time we got home from church a boy my age would be starving. Usually the punishment for sinning during church consisted of doing without a meal and staying in my room for the day. We never got whippings, but we respected our rules. That afternoon me and my brothers all went out to the barn and sat while we told stories. My oldest brother told of a bear he saw in the forest while walking home one day, he watched the bear steal the honey from an old tree stump. After a full day of rest, Monday came and it was time to do my chores. After my chores were done, it was time to change into my good shirt and pants and go to school. I always walk to school with a couple of my friends that live down the road from me. We all met and walked on into town where the school was located. A minister of the church taught school. School was a fun place to go, because I got to be with my friends and play during recess. It was also very strict. There were only boys at the school; girls did not have school. The teacher could refuse to let anyone come to the school and learn. Once one of the boys got in trouble for pulling hair and his mother had to walk him back to school the next day and beg the teacher to let him come back. There are also kids that come to our school who do not live like we do. They don’t go to church or pray the way we do. I still play with them, but I think their parents would rather them not play with me. After school my friend and I decided to go out and set traps for squirrels. This is very hard to do, but we were having a shortage of nuts so I knew they would be hungry. We took some corn from our storage cellar and set out. My father reminded me to be home in time for supper. We reached a good spot to set the trap so we went to work dropping corn kernels on the ground around the trap, then throwing the whole bag into the trap. We waited back in a thicket of bushes very quietly. Suddenly something happened that really angered us, the crows started to come in on us and eat the corn. This was turning out to be an unsuccessful trip. The sun was starting to set and I was really beginning to get hungry so I suggested we try again another day. We rounded up our gear and started home. Just as we were getting close to the opening of the trees, we could see something moving. As we got closer we could tell it was a bear. I was so scared but I knew we had to stay down wind and out of sight. Finally the bear loped off and we quickly scurried home. I was so happy to be home that I almost wanted to hug my mother when I saw her but as a puritan I knew I should not. We did not hug our moms or dads and they did not hug us. This turned out to be another great day in Connecticut. My life as a puritan boy is really a great life.