Under the Greenwood Tree

ee or four hours remaining for rest, were disturbed and slight; an exhaustive variation upon the incidents th

ireplace, watching his mother grilling rashers; but there was nothing in grilling, he thought, unless the Vision grilled. The limp rasher hung down between the bars of the gridiron like a cat in a child’s arms; but there was nothing in similes, unless She uttered th

efore he replied, “I fancy she w

though deliberateness in speech was known to have, as a rule, more to do

boots had features which elevated it to the rank of an art. Every particle and speck of last week’s mud was scraped and brushed from toe and heel; new blacking from the packet was carefully mixed and made

on working-day mornings were mere flashes in the pan. Vanishing into the outhouse with a large brown towel, and the above-named bubblings and snortings being carried on for about twenty minutes, the tranter would appear round the edge of the door, smelling like a summer fog, and looking as i

es were taken from their nook, and the strings examined and screwed a little above concert-pitch, that they might keep their tone when the service began, to obviate the awk

instruments in faded green-baize bags, and old brown music-books in their hands; Dick continually finding h

ng on an altar-tomb to pass the time, and letting their heels dangle against it. The musicians being now in sight, the youthful party scampered off and rattled up the old wooden stairs of the gallery like a regiment of ca

uliarity, and had an extensive stock of exclusive information about it; whilst the nave knew nothing of the gallery folk, as gallery folk, beyond their loud-sounding minims and chest notes. Such topics as that the clerk was always chewing tobacco except at the moment of crying amen; that he had a dust-hole in his pew; that during the sermon certain young daughters of the village had left off caring to read anything so mild a

ngers on each hand. Behind him, on the left, came the treble singers and Dick; and on the ri

door as methodically as if she had never been a vision at all. A new atmosphere seemed suddenly to be puffed into the ancient edifice by her movement, which made Dick’s body and soul tingle with novel sensations. Directed by Shiner, the chur

r a permanent place in which to deposit herself — finally choosing the remotest corner — Dick began to breathe more freely the warm new air she ha

viding themselves by a complete line from the services of other times. The tunes they that morning essayed remained with him for years, apart from all others; also the text; also the appearance of the layer of dust upon the

f an interesting presence, in the shape of the same bright maiden, though his emotion reached a far less developed stage. And there was this difference, too, that t

ese constant reasons, there was a dampness in the atmosphere that still further aggravated the evil. Their strings, from the recent long exposure to the night air, rose whole semitones, and snapped with a loud twang at the

y attempt it grew bolder and more distinct. At the third time of singing, these intrusive feminine voices were as mighty as those of the regular singers; in fact, the flood of

pectful followers of the gallery; singing at sixes and sevens if without gallery leaders; never interfering with the ordinances of these

throughout the musical portion of the service. Directly the fiddles were laid down, Mr. Penny’s

uls?” Mr. Penny said,

d hussies!”

y note as loud as we, fidd

ll!” echoed Bo

be found than united ‘oo

d the form of words), “what business people have to tell maidens to sing like that when they don

ls, what’s the use o’ the ancients spending scores of pounds to build galleries if

a stranger, would have sounded mild and real. Only the initiated body of men he addressed could understand the horrible bit

o —’twill make it all the lo

have you lived all your life?”

d to look as if he had

here’d have been no real harm in their singing if they

gfully, I’d say before my lord judge that I could hear every note o’ that las

out reference to his fellow players — shaking his head at some idea he seemed to see floating bef

e aware from experience that what he kne

young man,” said the tranter, pending the continuance of Spinks’s sp

entle or simple.” Then folding his lips and concentrating his glance on the vicar, he implied that none but the ignorant wo

y it was customary with them to have on Christmas night — a piece of knowledge which had given a particular brightness to Dick’s reflections since he had received it. And in the tranter’s slightly-cy