I know a story about it , '' said the Story Girl . `` Who 's interrupting now ? '' aid Dan slyly . `` Never mind , tell us the story , '' said the preacher himself , eagerly leaning over the pulpit . `` It was Mr. Scott who did it , '' said the Story Girl . `` He was preaching somewhere in Nova Scotia , and when he was more than half way through his sermon -- and you know sermons were VERY long in those days -- a man walked in . Mr. Scott stopped until he had taken his seat . Then he said , ` My friend , you are very late for this service . I hope you wo n't be late for heaven . The congregation will excuse me if I recapitulate the sermon for our friend 's benefit . ' And then he just preached the sermon over again from the beginning . It is said that that particular man was never known to be late for church again . '' `` It served him right , '' said Dan , `` but it was pretty hard lines on the rest of the congregation . '' `` Now , let 's be quiet so Peter can go on with his sermon , '' said Cecily . Peter squared his shoulders and took hold of the edge of the pulpit . Never a thump had he thumped , but I realized that his way of leaning forward and fixing this one or that one of his hearers with his eye was much more effective . `` I 've come now to the second head of my sermon -- what the bad place is like . '' He proceeded to describe the bad place . Later on we discovered that he had found his material in an illustrated translation of Dante 's Inferno which had once been given to his Aunt Jane as a school prize . But at the time we supposed he must be drawing from Biblical sources .
XXXXX had been reading the Bible steadily ever since what we always referred to as `` the Judgment Sunday , '' and he was by now almost through it .
Biblical Cecily Dan Dante Jane Peter Scotia days right second