the
door, he himself holding it ajar and regarding them with a critical face
as they passed, like a shepherd counting out his sheep. "You two counter-
boys, keep your ears open to Michael's fingering, and don't ye go
straying into the treble part along o' Dick and his set, as ye did last
year; and mind this especially when we be in 'Arise, and hail.' Billy
Chimlen, don't you sing quite so raving mad as you fain would; and, all
o' ye, whatever ye do, keep from making a great scuffle on the ground
when we go in at people's gates; but go quietly, so as to strike up all
of a sudden, like spirits."

"Farmer Ledlow's first?"

"Farmer Ledlow's first; the rest as usual."

"And, Voss," said the tranter terminatively, "you keep house here till
about half-past two; then heat the metheglin and cider in the warmer
you'll find turned up upon the copper; and bring it wi' the victuals to
church-hatch, as th'st know."

* * * * *

Just before the clock struck twelve they lighted the lanterns and
started. The moon, in her third quarter, had risen since the snowstorm;
but the dense accumulation of snow-cloud weakened her power to a faint
twilight, which was rather pervasive of the landscape than traceable to
the sky. The breeze had gone down, and the rustle of their feet and
tones of their speech echoed with an alert rebound from every post,
boundary-stone, and ancient wall they passed, even where the distance of
the echo's origin was less than a few yards. Beyond their own slight
noises nothing was to be heard, save the occasional bark of foxes in the
direction of Yalbury Wood, or the brush of a rabbit among the grass now
and then, as it scampered out of their way.

Most of the outlying homesteads and hamlets had been visited by about two
o'clock; they then passed across the outskirts of a wooded park toward
the main village, nobody being at home at the Manor. Pursuing no
recognized track, great care was necessary in walking lest their faces
should come in contact with the low-hanging boughs of the old lime-trees,
which in many spots formed dense over-growths of interlaced branches.

"Times have changed from the times they used to be," said Mail, regarding
nobody can tell what interesting old panoramas with an inward eye, and
letting his outward glance rest on the ground, because it was as
convenient a position as any. "People don't care much about us now! I've
been thinking we must be almost the last left in the county of