In Little Sinner, Spanky could not have learned by any better means how bad it is to play hooky from Sunday School. Spanky WAS SUPPOSED to go to Sunday School, and was warned by Alfalfa (his BEST FRIEND no less) that kids who skip Sunday School are BAD! Yet he and Porky just went ahead and went fishing instead. They climbed the fence to get to the water where they could fish, but COMPOUNDED their bad behavior by TRESPASSING! (It was private property, owned by a grouch, portrayed by Clarence Wilson, who played OTHER disagreeable types in other Our Gang-ers, like Mr. Crutch in Shrimps for a Day, and School Superintendent Alonzo K. Pratt in Come Back Miss Pips.) Spanky and Porky would not co-operate BUT-- were brought to their senses when some African-Americans let off an ominous chant during a baptism, and the sun went into total eclipse! The eerie darkness and the spooky singing frightened the Sunday-School truants, so they headed back to the church; the pastor asked Spanky if he learned a good lesson; Spanky replied "And how!" Little Sinner is eloquent of how naughty it is to fail to attend Sunday School when parents want them to go, as much is as truancy from REGULAR school, a common misdeed on part of Little Rascals. Over the years, parents have punished children who refuse to attend Sunday School (or go but behave badly) by depriving them of Saturday movies, etc. In this case, Spanky's going ahead and skipping Sunday School and seeing what it was like, with the property owner justifiably telling them to go away and Spanky's witnessing solar eclipse (with its eerie gloom) and hearing weird music, taught him a good lesson for sure. Mercifully, MY childhood, whatever problems I encountered, was NOT marked by behavior like Spanky's.
