`` I ca n't , dear . Your Aunt Judith would n't like it . Perhaps she will let you go after a while . Now do be a good boy while I am away , wo n't you ? Do n't do any naughty things . '' `` I wo n't do them if I know they 're naughty , '' conceded Lionel Hezekiah . `` But that 's just the trouble ; I do n't know what 's naughty and what ai n't . Prob ` ly if I went to Sunday school I 'd find out . '' Salome limped out of the yard and down the lane bordered by its asters and goldenrod . Fortunately the church was just outside the lane , across the main road ; but Salome found it hard to cover even that short distance . She felt almost exhausted when she reached the church and toiled painfully up the aisle to her mother 's old pew . She laid her crutch on the seat , and sank into the corner by the window with a sigh of relief . She had elected to come early so that she might get there before the rest of the people . The church was as yet empty , save for a class of Sunday school children and their teacher in a remote corner , who paused midway in their lesson to stare with amazement at the astonishing sigh of Salome Marsh limping into church . The big building , shadowy from the great elms around it , was very still . A faint murmur came from the closed room behind the pulpit where the rest of the Sunday school was assembled . In front of the pulpit was a stand bearing tall white geraniums in luxuriant blossom . The light fell through the stained-glass window in a soft tangle of hues upon the floor . Salome felt a sense of peace and happiness fill her heart . Even Judith 's anger lost its importance .
She leaned her head against the window-sill , and gave herself up to the flood XXXXX tender old recollections that swept over her .
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