-tree and
twittered sweetly, the spiders spun their webs, or came floating down on
gossamer year after year, but he did not notice that they were not the
same butterflies or the same swallows which had been there in his
youth. Everything was the same to him within the orchard, however much
the world might change without its walls.

Why, the very houses in the village close by had many of them fallen and
been rebuilt; there was scarcely a resident left who dwelt there then;
even the ancient and unchangeable church was not the same--it had been
renovated; why, even the everlasting hills were different, for the
slopes were now in many places ploughed, and grew oats where nothing but
sheep had fed. But all within the orchard was the same; his lady, too,
was the same without doubt, and her light step would sooner or later
come down the footpath to her lover. This was the story Bevis's papa
told him afterwards.

They had some difficulty in fastening up the horse, until they pulled
some hay from a hayrick, and spread it before him, for like Bevis he had
to be bribed with cake, as it were, before he would be good. They then
knocked at the front door, which was propped up with a beam of timber,
but no one answered, nor did even a dog bark at the noise; indeed, the
dog's kennel had entirely disappeared, and only a piece of the staple to
which his chain had been fastened remained, a mere rusty stump in the
wall. It was not possible to look into this room, because the broken
windows were blocked with old sacks to keep out the draught and rain;
but the window of the parlour was open, the panes all broken, and the
casement loose, so that it must have swung and banged with the wind.

Within, the ceiling had fallen upon the table, and the chairs had
mouldered away; the looking-glass on the mantelpiece was hidden with
cobwebs, the cobwebs themselves disused; for as they collected the dust,
the spiders at last left them to spin new ones elsewhere. The carpet, if
it remained, was concealed by the dead leaves which had been carried in
by the gales. On these lay one or two picture frames, the back part
upwards, the cords had rotted from the nails, and as they dropped so
they stayed. In a punch-bowl of ancient ware, which stood upon the old
piano untouched all these years, a robin had had his nest. After Bevis
had been lifted up to the window-ledge to look in at this desolation,
they went on down towards the orchard, as if the old gentlema