United States or Anguilla ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Mebbe Passon Walden was thinkin' of Oliver Leach," suggested Bainton with a slight twinkle in his eye; "And 'ow m'appen we'd best be all of us meek and quiet when he's by. It might be so, Mr. Buggins, Passon's a rare one to guess as 'ow the wind blows nor'- nor'-east sometimes in the village, for all that it's a warm day and the peas comin' on beautiful. Eh, now, Mr. Buggins?"
Every now and again Bainton glanced up at the 'Passon's' face and murmured under his breath, 'Blue's the colour there ain't nowt to beat it! possibly inspired thereto by the very decided blue sparkle in the eyes of the 'man of God' who was marching steadily along in the 'Onward Christian Soldiers' style, with his shoulders well back, his head well poised, and his whole bearing expressive of both decision and command.
An' if the real fire worn't in Passon's eyes when he talked o' the lady-love, than I'm an old idgit wot never felt my heart go dunt again my side in courtin' time!" Walden meanwhile went on his round of visits, and presently, the circle of his poorer parishioners being completed,-he decided to call on Julian Adderley at his 'cottage in the wood' and tell him also of his intended absence.
A knife lay between his wide-planted feet, and a visgy close behind him on a heap of disturbed sand. The boy came on them from the eastward, and his shadow fell across the hollow. "Hullo!" said one of the riders, looking up. It was Squire Moyle himself. "Here's the new Passon's boy!" All the riders looked up. The Whip looked up too, and turned to the old Squire with a wider grin than before.
Such conduct, so the village worthies opined, was bound to be included among the various signs and tokens which were ominous of a coming revolution in the moral and domestic atmosphere of St. Rest. Then again, the 'Passon's' sermon that morning had been something of a failure.
The smile deepened on the 'Passon's' face, and for a moment he had some difficulty to control an outbreak of laughter, but recollecting the possibly demoralising effect it might have on the more youthful members of the community, if he, the spiritual director of the parish, were reported to have laughed at the pugnacious conduct of the valiant Kitty Spruce, he controlled himself, and assumed a tolerantly serious air.
An' I don't want to see 'er with a lord nor a duke, I'll be content to see 'er with a good man if the Lord will grant me that 'fore I die! An' you do as you feels to be right, an' all things 'ull work together for good to them as loves the Lord! That's Passon's teachin' an' rare good teachin' it be!"
It dozes peacefully with the sun in its eyes, year in and year out, under the shadow of the eastern hills, with its beloved 'Passon' and now its equally beloved 'Passon's wife, as king and queen of its tiny governmental concerns, drawing health and peace, contentment and tranquillity from the influences of nature, unspoilt by contact with the busier and wearier world.
Please" and she raised her eyes in pretty appeal to Bainton, "Please make everybody understand that! Are you one of the foresters here?" Bainton shook his head. "No, Miss, I'm the Passon's head man. I does all his gardening and keeps a few flowers growin' in the churchyard.
But Passon's that sharp on me when I sez any little thing wot might be interestin' about the lady, that I'm thinkin' he's got out o' the habit o' knowin' when a face is a male or a female one, which is wot often happens to bacheldors when they gits fixed like old shrubs in one pertikler spot o' ground.
Word Of The Day