The Chalice of Carden (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889. Excerpt: ... on horseback till his young master returned home; and as to his song, "Away to the Woods," any one who liked might sing it. He remembered even minor things, which less conscientious people might have considered unnecessary, if indeed they would have thought of them at all. "Telling the bees," for example--which custom he performed in the orthodox manner, namely by pinning a square of crape to each hive, and exclaiming every time, "You've lost a friend"--by which he meant, of course, the late baronet. Thanks to this wise precaution the honey harvest showed no signs of diminution, whereas for the lack of it, according to all tradition, every hive would have been deserted. CHAPTER XIV. THE RED-HOT POKER. The day after her arrival in Carden Sophie was running all over the village, making friends with everybody she met, especially the children, who were not a little pleased at having somebody fresh to play with. She thought Caleb and Peter Pack, two of the progeny of Mr. Tim Pack, the cobbler, particularly agreeable companions--though, truth to say, they were decidedly ragged ones, and had a name for being quarrelsome--accepting readily their invitation to go and view the various sights of the village. They showed her the big chestnut tree, into whose branches they aimed their hockey sticks every autumn, the brook where they caught crayfish and gudgeon, and where old Mother Sidcup was drowned while filling her kettle, the gibbet at the cross roads, the pound, and the stocks. As for their accomplishments, two more gifted boys Sophie had never seen. They imitated the voice of a cat or a dog to a miracle, they made ducks and drakes on the horsepond, they wept at pleasure for minutes, as copiously, too, as if they had been constrained to go an errand in their own ...