Page:Under the greenwood tree (1872 Volume 1).pdf/97

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CHRISTMAS MORNING.
83

The quailing Leaf tried to look as if he had lived nowhere at all.

'When all's said and done, my sonnies,' Reuben said, 'there'd have been no real harm in their singing if they had let nobody hear 'em, and only jined in now and then.'

'None at all,' said Mr. Penny. 'But though I don't wish to accuse people wrongfully, I'd say before my lord judge that I could hear every note o' that last psalm come from 'em as much as from us—every note as if 'twas their own.'

'Know it! ah, I should think I did know it!' Mr. Spinks was heard to observe at this moment, without reference to his fellow-creatures—shaking his head at some idea he seemed to see floating before him, and smiling as if he were attending a funeral at the time. Ah, do I or don't I know it!'

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