Tough Nut to Crack

A favorite Moment from Life With Father


It transpired that Mr. Clarence Day, Sr. had not been baptized. This revelation came after an inquisitive visitor had been asking about the Day family's religion. Mrs. Day was shocked, as she had assumed that "every decent person is baptized." She wondered if she had ever been really married and took her problem to her Episcopal priest. That Sunday, as anyone could predict the good Dr. Lloyd preached a hellfire and brimstone sermon of the necessity of being baptized. Mr. Day, one of those self-made men of the 1880s, took exception, muttering in church "what is he up to?" The following conversation ensued after services:

"Clare, you know I didn't ask Dr. Lloyd to do that."
"You must have said something!"
"Well, I had to find out from him if we were really married."
"I AM married, and I am not baptized, and as far as I'm concerned the whole congregation can know it."
"They certainly know it now."
"That suits me, I don't go to church to be preached as as though I were some lost sheep."
"Clare, you don't seem to understand what the church is for!"
"Vinnie, if there is one thing the church should leave alone it's a man's soul."

Mother wins. Eventually....