sation ended,
the young man rode out with a great splashing and the old woman turned
into her cottage again, and I was left in solitude.

Still I lingered: I could not go just yet; the chances were that I
should never again see that sweet village in that beautiful aspect at
the twilight hour.

For now it came into my mind that I could not very well settle there
for the rest of my life; I could not, in fact, tie myself to any place
without sacrificing certain other advantages I possessed; and the main
thing was that by taking root I should deprive myself of the chance of
looking on still other beautiful scenes and experiencing other sweet
surprises. I was wishing that I had come a little earlier on the scene
to have had time to borrow the key of the church and get a sight of the
interior, when all at once I heard a shrill voice and a boy appeared
running across the wide green space of the churchyard. A second boy
followed, then another, then still others, and I saw that they were
going into the church by the side door. They were choir-boys going to
practice. The church was open then, and late as it was I could have
half an hour inside before it was dark! The stream was spanned by an old
stone bridge above the ford, and going over it I at once made my way
to the great building, but even before entering it I discovered that
it possessed an organ of extraordinary power and that someone was
performing on it with a vengeance. Inside the noise was tremendous--a
bigger noise from an organ, it seemed to me, than I had ever heard
before, even at the Albert Hall and the Crystal Palace, but even more
astonishing than the uproar was the sight that met my eyes. The boys,
nine or ten sturdy little rustics with round sunburnt West Country
faces, were playing the roughest game ever witnessed in a church. Some
were engaged in a sort of flying fight, madly pursuing one another up
and down the aisles and over the pews, and whenever one overtook another
he would seize hold of him and they would struggle together until
one was thrown and received a vigorous pommelling. Those who were not
fighting were dancing to the music. It was great fun to them, and they
were shouting and laughing their loudest only not a sound of it all
could be heard on account of the thunderous roar of the organ which
filled and seemed to make the whole building tremble. The boys took no
notice of me, and seeing that there was a singularly fine west window, I
went to