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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 18 of 298
Words from 4582 to 4851
of 82198
