United States or Ghana ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
If my old father dies first, I shall say to the gravedigger, 'Dig a big hole, sexton, for my mother will lie there too." "Ah! heart of me!" cried Riekje, clasping her husband in her arms, "I shall say the same thing to the sexton if you die first, my Dolf." The fire roared in the stove, and the candles, which were nearly burned down, gave a flickering light.
Only one name escaped the general oblivion that of the sexton himself. Only one view left a lasting image behind that of a tremendously large boulder, a memento of the glacial period, that rose like a crude monument right in the centre of a tilled field almost, but not quite out of sight of the house.
My wife and I to church this morning, and so home to dinner to a boiled leg of mutton all alone. To church again, where, before sermon, a long Psalm was set that lasted an hour, while the sexton gathered his year's contribucion through the whole church. After sermon home, and there I went to my chamber and wrote a letter to send to Mr.
As I was clearing away the weeds from his epitaph the little sexton drew me on one side with a mysterious air, and informed me in a low voice that once upon a time, on a dark wintry night, when the wind was unruly, howling, and whistling, banging about doors and windows, and twirling weathercocks, so that the living were frightened out of their beds, and even the dead could not sleep quietly in their graves, the ghost of honest Preston, which happened to be airing itself in the churchyard, was attracted by the well-known call of "Waiter!" from the Boar's Head, and made its sudden appearance in the midst of a roaring club, just as the parish clerk was singing a stave from the "mirre garland of Captain Death;" to the discomfiture of sundry train-band captains and the conversion of an infidel attorney, who became a zealous Christian on the spot, and was never known to twist the truth afterwards, except in the way of business.
You have deprived me of my betrothed bride." "Your betrothed bride!" said the queen of the gypsies. "Behold her!" She waved her hand, and Myra stood before the sexton of St. Hubert's. "There she stands," said the gypsy. "Have you forgotten that your troth is plighted to her? The bride and the priest are ready. Man of guilt and passion, wed her you may, wed her you must!"
'You don't think it a bullet wound, Sir? said my uncle, mildly, and touching his hat for coming of a military stock himself, he always treated an old soldier with uncommon respect. 'Why, please your raverence, replied the man, reciprocating his courtesy; 'I know it's not. 'And what is it, then, my good man? interrogated the sexton, as one in authority, and standing on his own dunghill.
I simply mean that if the children could learn a thing with less effort " "Well, what then?" bristled the old soldier. The sexton knew from the old man's tone that he had offended him, and tried to smooth over the breach. "Anyhow you make it so easy for your pupils that they never complain about their lessons." "Maybe I make it too easy for them?" snapped the old man.
One can easily imagine the situation which Dickens describes when the old sexton crossed the street and rang the church bells on the night of the murder at Haredale Hall. Aside from Dickens' connection with Chigwell, the village has a place of peculiar interest to Americans in the old grammar school where William Penn received his early education.
'Say that again. 'He's very deaf. He's very deaf indeed, cried the sexton petulantly; 'are you sure you're right about the figures? 'Oh quite, replied the old man. 'Why not? 'He's exceedingly deaf, muttered the sexton to himself. 'I think he's getting foolish.
From that moment with the name of Dane were associated strange ideas of strength, daring, and superhuman stature; and an undefinable curiosity for all that is connected with the Danish race began to pervade me; and if, long after, when I became a student I devoted myself with peculiar zest to Danish lore and the acquirement of the old Norse tongue and its dialects, I can only explain the matter by the early impression received at Hythe from the tale of the old sexton, beneath the pent-house, and the sight of the Danish skull.
Word Of The Day