CHAPTER II.

My first Sunday at marshmallows.

These events fell on the Saturday night.  On the Sunday morning, I read prayers and preached.  Never before had I enjoyed so much the petitions of the Church, which Hooker calls “the sending of angels upward,” or the reading of the lessons, which he calls “the receiving of angels descended from above.”  And whether from the newness of the parson, or the love of the service, certainly a congregation more intent, or more responsive, a clergyman will hardly find.  But, as I had feared, it was different in the afternoon.  The people had dined, and the usual somnolence had followed; nor could I find in my heart to blame men and women who worked hard all the week, for being drowsy on the day of rest.  So I curtailed my sermon as much as I could, omitting page after page of my manuscript; and when I came to a close, was rewarded by perceiving an agreeable surprise upon many of the faces round me.  I resolved that, in the afternoons at least, my sermons should be as short as heart could wish.

But that afternoon there was at least one man of the congregation who was neither drowsy nor inattentive.  Repeatedly my eyes left the page off which I was reading and glanced towards him.  Not once did I find his eyes turned away from me.

There was a small loft in the west end of the church, in which stood a little organ, whose voice, weakened by years of praising, and possibly of neglect, had yet, among a good many tones that were rough, wooden, and reedy, a few remaining that were as mellow as ever praiseful heart could wish to praise withal.  And these came in amongst the rest like trusting thoughts amidst “eating cares;” like the faces of children borne in the arms of a crowd of anxious mothers; like hopes that are young prophecies amidst the downward sweep of events.  For, though I do not understand music, I have a keen ear for the perfection of the single tone, or the completeness of the harmony.  But of this organ more by and by.

Now this little gallery was something larger than was just necessary for the organ and its ministrants, and a few of the parishioners had chosen to sit in its fore-front.  Upon this occasion there was no one there but the man to whom I have referred.

The space below this gallery was not included in the part of the church used for the service.  It was claimed by the gardener of the place, that is the sexton, to hold his gardening tools.  There were a few ancient carvings in wood lying in it, very brown in the dusky light that came through a small lancet window, opening, not to the outside, but into the tower, itself dusky with an enduring twilight.  And there were some broken old headstones, and the kindly spade and pickaxe—­but I have really nothing to do with these now, for I am, as it were, in the pulpit, whence one ought to look beyond such things as these.