Using close reading what does this passage mean From Hawthorne's "The Maypole at Merrymount"?

Question

From Hawthorne's "The Maypole at Merrymount": Unfortunately, there were men in the new world of a sterner faith than these Maypole worshippers. Not far from Merry Mount was a settlement of Puritans, most dismal wretches, who said their prayers before daylight, and then wrought in the forest or the corn-field till evening made it prayer time again. Their weapons were always at hand to shoot down the straggling savage. When they met in conclave, it was never to keep up the old English mirth, but to hear sermons three hours long, or to proclaim bounties on the heads of wolves and the scalps of Indians. Their festivals were fast days, and their chief pastime the singing of psalms. Woe to the youth or maiden who did but dream of a dance! The selectman nodded to the constable; and there sat the light-heeled reprobate in the stocks; or if he danced, it was round the whipping-post, which might be termed the Puritan Maypole.

Answer 1

Nearby there were men who were stronger and grimmer than the folks dancing around the Maypole. Puritans got up to pray, then worked all day long until time to pray at night. They always had their guns ready to shoot Indians.

When they got together, it wasn't for traditional English celebrations, but instead to hear three-hour sermons or announce bounties for killing wolves or Indians. Their idea of a celebration was to fast all day and sing holy songs. If any boy or girl even dreamed of dancing, the men in charge would figure it out and put him or her in the stocks. The only dancing was if someone was being whipped at the whipping post, so that the post was the closest thing to a Maypole.

Do you know about dancing at a Maypole?  There are long streamers that become intertwined as people hold them and move in different directions around the pole. It's somehow related to fertility rites and there was sometimes going off into the dark and practicing fertility in the evening after the dancing.