noon
The people looked at one another in surprise , and some with frowns on their faces . Never had an instrument of music of any sort been brought into that little church before ; and now it was Deacon Turner 's brother , the blacksmith , who had ventured to come there with a fiddle ! Good Elder Lovejoy opened his eyes , and wiped his spectacles , and thought something must be done about it ; they could not have `` dance music '' in that holy place . Deacon Turner and a great many others thought just so too ; and at noon they talked to the wicked blacksmith , and put a stop to his fiddle . But nothing of this was done in church time . Elder Lovejoy preached a very long sermon , in a painfully sing-song tone ; but Patty thought it was exactly right ; and when she heard a minister preach without the sing-song , she knew it must be wrong . She could not understand the sermon , but she stretched up her little neck towards the pulpit till it ached , thinking , -- `` Well , mamma says I must sit still , and let other people listen .