" One thrifty parson, while watching a
farmer unload his yearly contribution, remarked, "Isn't that pretty soft
wood?" "And don't we sometimes have pretty soft preaching?" was the answer.
It was well that the witty retort was not made a century earlier; for the
speaker would have been punished by a fine, since they fined so sharply
anything that savored of "speaking against the minister." In some towns a
day was appointed which was called a "wood-spell," when it was ordered that
all the wood be delivered at the parson's door; and thus the farmers formed
a cheerful gathering, at which the minister furnished plentiful flip, or
grog, to the wood-givers. Rev. Stephen Williams, of Longmeadow, never
failed to make a note of the "wood-sleddings" in his diary. He wrote on
Jan. 25, 1757, "Neighbors sledded wood for me and shewed a Good Humour.
I rejoice at it. The Lord bless them that are out of humour and brot no
wood." In other towns the wood did not always come in when it was wanted or
needed, and winter found the parsonage woodshed empty. Rev. Mr. French, of
Andover, gave out this notice in his pulpit one Sunday in November: "I will
write two discourses and deliver them in this meeting-house on Thanksgiving
Day, _provided I can manage to write them without a fire_." We can be
sure that Monday morning saw several loads of good hard wood deposited at
the parson's door.
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