Mellstock was a parish of considerable acreage, the hamlets composing it lying at a much greater distance from each other than is ordinarily the case. Hence several hours were consumed in playing and singing within hearing of every family, even if but a single air were bestowed8 on each. There was Lower Mellstock, the main village; half a mile from this were the church and vicarage, and a few other houses, the spot being rather lonely now, though in past centuries it had been the most thickly-populated quarter of the parish. A mile north-east lay the hamlet of Upper Mellstock, where the tranter lived; and at other points knots of cottages, besides solitary9 farmsteads and dairies.
Old William Dewy, with the violoncello, played the bass10; his grandson Dick the treble violin; and Reuben and Michael Mail the tenor11 and second violins respectively. The singers consisted of four men and seven boys, upon whom devolved the task of carrying and attending to the lanterns, and holding the books open for the players. Directly music was the theme, old William ever and instinctively12 came to the front.
“Now mind, neighbours,” he said, as they all went out one by one at 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 raving13 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 copper14; and bring it wi’ the victuals15 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 dense16 accumulation of snow-cloud weakened her power to a faint twilight17, which was rather pervasive18 of the landscape than traceable to the sky. The breeze had gone down, and the rustle19 of their feet and tones of their speech echoed with an alert rebound20 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 scampered21 out of their way.
Most of the outlying homesteads and hamlets had been visited by about two o’clock; they then passed across the outskirts22 of a wooded park toward the main village, nobody being at home at the Manor23. Pursuing no recognized track, great care was necessary in walking lest their faces should come in contact with the low-hanging boughs24 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 panoramas25 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 the old string players? Barrel-organs, and the things next door to ’em that you blow wi’ your foot, have come in terribly of late years.”
“Ay!” said Bowman, shaking his head; and old William, on seeing him, did the same thing.
“More’s the pity,” replied another. “Time was — long and merry ago now! — when not one of the varmits was to be heard of; but it served some of the quires right. They should have stuck to strings26 as we did, and kept out clarinets, and done away with serpents. If you’d thrive in musical religion, stick to strings, says I.”
“Strings be safe soul-lifters, as far as that do go,” said Mr. Spinks.
“Yet there’s worse things than serpents,” said Mr. Penny. “Old things pass away, ’tis true; but a serpent was a good old note: a deep rich note was the serpent.”
“Clar’nets, however, be bad at all times,” said Michael Mail. “One Christmas — years agone now, years — I went the rounds wi’ the Weatherbury quire. ’Twas a hard frosty night, and the keys of all the clar’nets froze — ah, they did freeze! — so that ’twas like drawing a cork27 every time a key was opened; and the players o’ ’em had to go into a hedger-and-ditcher’s chimley-corner, and thaw28 their clar’nets every now and then. An icicle o’ spet hung down from the end of every man’s clar’net a span long; and as to fingers — well, there, if ye’ll believe me, we had no fingers at all, to our knowing.”
“I can well bring back to my mind,” said Mr. Penny, “what I said to poor Joseph Ryme (who took the treble part in Chalk-Newton Church for two-and-forty year) when they thought of having clar’nets there. ‘Joseph,’ I said, says I, ‘depend upon’t, if so be you have them tooting clar’nets you’ll spoil the whole set-out. Clar’nets were not made for the service of the Lard; you can see it by looking at ’em,’ I said. And what came o’t? Why, souls, the parson set up a barrel-organ on his own account within two years o’ the time I spoke29, and the old quire went to nothing.”
“As far as look is concerned,” said the tranter, “I don’t for my part see that a fiddle30 is much nearer heaven than a clar’net. ’Tis further off. There’s always a rakish, scampish twist about a fiddle’s looks that seems to say the Wicked One had a hand in making o’en; while angels be supposed to play clar’nets in heaven, or som’at like ’em, if ye may believe picters.”
“Robert Penny, you was in the right,” broke in the eldest31 Dewy. “They should ha’ stuck to strings. Your brass-man is a rafting dog — well and good; your reed-man is a dab32 at stirring ye — well and good; your drum-man is a rare bowel-shaker — good again. But I don’t care who hears me say it, nothing will spak to your heart wi’ the sweetness o’ the man of strings!”
“Strings for ever!” said little Jimmy.
“Strings alone would have held their ground against all the new comers in creation.” (“True, true!” said Bowman.) “But clarinets was death.” (“Death they was!” said Mr. Penny.) “And harmonions,” William continued in a louder voice, and getting excited by these signs of approval, “harmonions and barrel-organs” (“Ah!” and groans33 from Spinks) “be miserable34 — what shall I call ’em? — miserable —”
“Sinners,” suggested Jimmy, who made large strides like the men, and did not lag behind like the other little boys.
“Miserable dumbledores!”
“Right, William, and so they be — miserable dumbledores!” said the choir35 with unanimity36.
By this time they were crossing to a gate in the direction of the school, which, standing37 on a slight eminence38 at the junction39 of three ways, now rose in unvarying and dark flatness against the sky. The instruments were retuned, and all the band entered the school enclosure, enjoined40 by old William to keep upon the grass.
“Number seventy-eight,” he softly gave out as they formed round in a semicircle, the boys opening the lanterns to get a clearer light, and directing their rays on the books.
Then passed forth41 into the quiet night an ancient and time-worn hymn42, embodying43 a quaint44 Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly:
“Remember Adam’s fall,
O thou Man:
Remember Adam’s fall
From Heaven to Hell.
Remember Adam’s fall;
How he hath condemn’d all
In Hell perpetual
There for to dwell.
Remember God’s goodnesse,
O thou Man:
Remember God’s goodnesse,
His promise made.
Remember God’s goodnesse;
He sent His Son sinlesse
Our ails45 for to redress46;
Be not afraid!
In Bethlehem He was born,
O thou Man:
In Bethlehem He was born,
For mankind’s sake.
In Bethlehem He was born,
Christmas-day i’ the morn:
Our Saviour47 thought no scorn
Our faults to take.
Give thanks to God alway,
O thou Man:
Give thanks to God alway
With heart-most joy.
Give thanks to God alway
On this our joyful48 day:
Let all men sing and say,
Holy, Holy!”
Having concluded the last note, they listened for a minute or two, but found that no sound issued from the schoolhouse.
“Four breaths, and then, ‘O, what unbounded goodness!’ number fifty-nine,” said William.
This was duly gone through, and no notice whatever seemed to be taken of the performance.
“Good guide us, surely ‘tisn’t a’ empty house, as befell us in the year thirty-nine and forty-three!” said old Dewy.
“Perhaps she’s jist come from some musical city, and sneers49 at our doings?” the tranter whispered.
“‘Od rabbit her!” said Mr. Penny, with an annihilating50 look at a corner of the school chimney, “I don’t quite stomach her, if this is it. Your plain music well done is as worthy51 as your other sort done bad, a’ b’lieve, souls; so say I.”
“Four breaths, and then the last,” said the leader authoritatively52. “‘Rejoice, ye Tenants53 of the Earth,’ number sixty-four.”
At the close, waiting yet another minute, he said in a clear loud voice, as he had said in the village at that hour and season for the previous forty years —“A merry Christmas to ye!”
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1
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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2
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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3
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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4
zigzags
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| n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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5
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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6
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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7
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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8
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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10
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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11
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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12
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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13
raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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14
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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15
victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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16
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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17
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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18
pervasive
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| adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的 | |
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19
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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20
rebound
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| v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回 | |
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21
scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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23
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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24
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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25
panoramas
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| 全景画( panorama的名词复数 )； 全景照片； 一连串景象或事 | |
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26
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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27
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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28
thaw
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| v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和 | |
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29
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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30
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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31
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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32
dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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33
groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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34
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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35
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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36
unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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37
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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38
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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39
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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40
enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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42
hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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43
embodying
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| v.表现( embody的现在分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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44
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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45
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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46
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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47
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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48
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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49
sneers
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| 讥笑的表情（言语）( sneer的名词复数 ) | |
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50
annihilating
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的现在分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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51
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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52
authoritatively
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| 命令式地，有权威地，可信地 | |
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53
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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