spent on shipboard had not been what the newly wedded couple had expected for Mis tress Mollie had suffered much from sea sickness. The voyage around Cape Cod did not help the malady and so John Carter de cided to leave his bride in Boston while he made the trip further up the coast, and thus it happened that Mistress Mollie Carter watched the Eagle sail away behind the is lands in Boston harbor, with sadness it is true, but with no premonition of coming trouble. That we may understand the following events, we must remember how sorely tried the Puritan fathers had been over the grow ing tendency to desecrate the Sabbath. From the fines imposed on guilty folk, we learn the disheartening fact that many per sons openly walked about in the fields and lanes on Sunday just as if it were a week day, that men travelled on horseback with out any sufficient excuse for such journeys, and that in Boston boys had been captured by the constable as they "swum in the water." When we add to these breaches of the peace the sad evidence that there were men, presumably most of them were bache lors, who absented themselves from public worship, we cannot wonder at the anxiety of the fathers which led them to pass stringent laws " for the Better Observation and Keep ing of the Lord's Day." ' The General Court enacted that henceforth on Sundays all persons " should carefully apply themselves to duties of Religion and Piety, publickly and privately; " that no one "should upon the land or water exercise any Labour, Businses or work of their ordinary Callings upon pain of forfeiting Five Shil lings; " and that no man " should travel on that Day except by adversity they were be lated and forced to lodge in the Woods, 1 See chapter VIII, " Arts and Laws of His Majesty's Province of Massachufetts Bay in ew England. Passed June Sth, 1692. Boston in New England. Printed by B. Green, Printer to the Honourable, the Lieut. Govenour and Council, for Benjamin Eliot, & Sold at his Shop near to the Town House in King's-Street."
Wildernefs, or Highways the night before, and in such case to Travel no further than the next Inn or place of Shelter on that Day, upon penalty of Twenty Shillings." Every Justice of the Peace was given authority "to Convent before him " any guilty person and to fine them. At the same time the General Court was also moved to fix a fine of ten shillings for swearing and " cursing, and to provide that if the person convicted should be unable or should refuse to pay the fine, he should be whipped not exceeding ten stripes for each offense. But Mistress Mollie Carter was ignorant concerning these essential points of Massa chusetts criminal law. The Virginians, of whom she was a fair type, never had the time to plant many vineyards in the next world because they were so busy enjoying the de lights of the world in which they found them selves. Mollie herself had ridden across country after the hounds on a Sunday after noon side by side with her father and the rector of their Episcopal Chapel, and as all three of them had said their prayers in the morning, they were quite unconscious of any reason why they should not afterwards enjoy the pleasures of the chase. Yet this atti tude of mind, pleasant as were its conse quences in Virginia, did not lead to a sym pathetic understanding of the customs in Massachusetts Bay. So when the fifth day came after the Eagle sailed, the time her husband had set as prob able for his return, Mollie Carter was not in the least disturbed to find that it was Sun day. As there was little chance of the frig ate arriving before afternoon, Mollie went to King's Chapel in the morning to hear the solemn liturgy of her Church, and afterwards decided to spend the time upon the beach until she should see the Eagle sail up the harbor. Her Puritan hostess looked upon her attendance at the Chapel with unwilling tolerance, as she had been brought up in error her hostess felt that perhaps she was
