The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1863-12-22 00:00:00

THE OLD BELL-RINGER'S STORY.

"It mu the last night of December, and I took my
keys, and came to sit where I am sitting now, that I
might welt, for the birth of the good New Year, and
weloom. it. Many a ghostly shape started up in my
lath across the churelayard. but I knew them all. and
greeted them as I pasted; many a queer shaped urn,
with the bnre arms of some drooping tree spread over
It, and rustling in the wind a sorrowful petition to the
paaserhy to go on his way in silence, and leave the
alumhe,.‘ of the holy dead untroubled.
" feared not ghosts, nor shadow., nor the !peat
croak that gleamed before me in the moonlight,
vt.taching forth its arms as though for ever supplicating,
See, on this I suffered for a dying word I Balm thin.
ryee.to me, and live
. .

"I tame on, and sat here, with my lantern, waiting,
for it was not yet twelve o'clock • and my raven perched
'beside me and ruffled up his teethe's. as though be
would have hinted that it waa cold. I'm not cold.
I am never cold here. I scared the bats from their
corners, and a heavy-winged owl tied screaming away
from my light ; then the mice came out, and the beetles
and creeping thing.; and a great spider ran up the rope,
end crawled about my hand I aired nothing for that.
I 1.11111 need to it. You think it. queer, dreary sort of
place to be in at that time of night, and all alone; but
then it is as good an home to me. The odd little noises
and rustling. might scare people not used to them, as
the white ernes in the churchyard took • ghostly form to
frirliten those who did not know what it was ; but they
did not mare me. I heard a carriage go rumbling down
the street past the churchyard from some of the
Chri.tmas parties; then another and another, and I
began to wonder idly whose they were, and whether
they would be amongst those I should see in the morn-
ing, for we were to have a grand wedding the next day.
All the country round had been ringing with it ; all the
neighbour. talked about it; the little children could
think of nothing else, and the universal cry was, 'Think
goodness we shall not Iwo her; she vrill be with us
ell the slime.'

" Would it be all the same? My bells told me better.
They knew that the shadow of • changed life and altered
hope. moot pans over the bride, for whom they ring
their joyful peal; and she con never be the same again.
And then I thought about the bridegroom, for whose
coining of age I had net my bells to riot only twelve
months before. and who., strong young arms had taken
their turn at the roped many • merry night Would he
ever dolt again? The question had *carpelv emus into
my mind when I heard a step upon the stone stairs ; not
• step like mine, but light and springing, and I knew to
whom it belonged.
Here, as usual,' he called out, amongst the bats
and the spiders. A brava night, old boy, with the stars
shining like a million golden balls, and the old tower
blinking under them like an owl. Well • Merry
Christman to you, Jeff, and a Happy New Year, when
it comes

'77.9am..• to you, sir, I said. 'But I didn't look for
you to-night, Mr. Hugh.'
"'No? I can't co to bed; I shouldn't sleeps wink.
Thenes • mikes eriril about, somehow.'
_ .

" ' You're breathing like a—blown hunter, Mr. Hugh.'
Old Jeffrey,' he said, throwing hack his arms, and
raisin his handsome head, ' I want work, that's it;
I'm getting rusty. Se we'll give a lusty welcome to the
Niers Year, and three cheers for him.'
'A knell for the grey beard first, Mr. Hugh.'
A knell, you raven? Ah ! croak sway in Monomer
there; I meant your master. bird of ill.ousen, not you.
No, no, Jeff; no knells to night. There Knee the clock.
Come, a strong pull, and • merry. A good New Year
to all the world.'
"And so we forgot the deed time wttleh never could
corns again, and filled the silent night with • peal of
rejoicing.
"'And now, Jeff, for • walk under the dais, end
then home to bed like a. reasonable man.'

" 'Mr. Hugh, I said, looking at bin, 'you won't
forget on altogether?
Forget you I Wait till we some beck in the
summer, old boy, for we are going abroad, you know'
and cos if I won't take my turn and roam the echoes as
merrily as ever. Good night. Jeff. And you,' he rid,
shaking his fist up towards the bells, 'sleep, you grim
old warriors, for the iron tongues must clamour for as
to-morrow.'
" I beard his footstep pass down the stairs and (0
out; and atthouch I had nothing more to do, I loitered,
thinking about him. Now and then there came • creak
from the great wheel., or the sway at • rope; or the
sudden falling of emus loose serape of rubbish which
made &hollow sound in the stillness and emptiness of the
pl.*. Outside, the wind had begun to rise, and am it
whistled stormily through the crevices and round the
town, I thought, 'A change is Ciosiling. Tomorrow
there will be • white world, and mow-lakes will fall In
the path of the bride, like 111411 erut pure dowers of Use
New Year.'

CHAPTIII I I . —WARR! Aar MLA.
" Etat the 41111 ram unclouded on that Jonuary morn-
ing, and there was no son., no wind, maroely a chilly
breath to blow upon the path of the bride.
" I rose and shook my atrong aims—thel are wiry
dill, bat they were stronger then—end oast off the
shadow of the belfry ; for to-day was to he a day of
merrymaking throughout all the parish, and children,
both young and of larger growth, were busy at work
over the arches of evergreens, the mottoes and emblorns
which had been long in preparation. There were
people who said it was an ungenial tame for a wedding,
and that summer would have beset better. But then
eras the abonsh all festal with his Christina* wreaths •
tbe shadow of a tram sad crown would fall spat sam;
two ma tho knell at the ; wad =day a

goodly test upon the walls would speak the wards of
hope and encouragement to them as they entered to
take upon themselves the rows at. new life with the
New Year.

MW-- .
them at the gate. and the white-haired gentle-
man, on whose arm that dainty little glove was resting.
noitded to me. The gram of the churchyard was dark
with men and women, old and young, grave and gay;
and some of them puned into the church as I did. that
they might look at the yoang bride in her wedding.
dress,
"'Then it was all over, and some impalas moved the
husband to tuts round at the gate and shake hands
with me.

rhektmas to you ell,' he cried, 'and •
happy Net Year."
"The shill January pissed away; the orommes and
snowdrop bloomed and faded in my little garden—you
know it —round about the tower; the ',Ames came no
more to the belfry for ah-lter and crumbs ; the stoves
1., the church were empty ; and the river ran like a
thread of golden light through green meadows, under
leafy trees, which were musical with the song of many
birds.
" And then rung in my ears the sentence, ' Wait till
we CORM back in the summer. and see if I won't rouse
the echoer a. merrily as ever.'
" For they were come back and rummer oas here : and there had been great rejoicings over the return of
the husband and wife. But when Mr. Hugh remembered his promise, and stood once more with me up amongst
the bells, his wife w•s with him, and the strong man
leaned on the arm of the slender girl. In spite of the
wann anu,hine his chest was mailed up, and his nostrils
dilated and grew pinched amnia with every breath he
drew.
"Old Jeff', he said, 'thank, for your welcome. We , are glad to be home again. But—this staircase of yours
—it is such a cranky, breathless sort of affair; we must
see if something can't be dose to it.'
"Had be forgotten, I wondered, the light steps that
sprang up it hat Christmas, and dashed in upon me M
'midnight, when I lopt expected them 1
" ' And there's your bird of ill-omen safe and well,
and gruff as ever. It IS nut a weird sort of companion
though ; end the tdsese—don't you And those midnight
watches of yours Amewhat dismal, eh?
"Ho ileeet used to think so. The tone mai new to
me, 54 well e.,a the sharp catching for breath, and the
sinkinga the sold buoyant spirit that was never wont
to Dna te'esi belfry • dreary place. I did not say this,
Losnreer. I looked at the young wife, and then her
he mid, Did she know?"

ease Tea 11T.—eorgrrR44
"It yea the last night of the year, and I took my
way through the churchyard, to keep my lonely watch
in the belfry. Snow covered the gram-grown graves ;
anow hung heavily upon the trees, and weighed down
the branches, dropping from them in silent, sodden tears
upon the kindred snow beneath. And the white crass
gleamed whiter than ever aa I paned It but on my
heart was • weight heavier than Snow, and I mourned
in the starlight, and wondered at the decreed which are
always wise and good.
"I put my keys Into tbe lock and the door swung
back heavily upon sullen hinge.; the worn stairs seemed
harder worn than ever, and more bitter the wind that
circled about them. My old seat met my eyes blank and
desolate, and the sound of my feet on the floor awoke
no echoes from the dark forms of my giant friends over-
head. All was sombre and still as the grave, except
the iron heart that beat in the tower above to tell the
flight of time,
"Only twelve months ago • and now bare were my
old arm, tolling the passing bell, while his -. Then
I new another picture : blinda drawn over the windows,
and a sheet over the bed. A lane which no crimson
spot could touch again on the pillow ; bands crossed
upon • clay cold breast, like the bands of the dead
*mender. in the channel.

"Paddenly my raven hopped away from my shoulder;
the whistling wind reached me no more; the clock
itself seemed to rase its monotonous tick ; I bent my
bead to listen. For there, again, in the dead silence,
came soft and clear, like voices heard in a dream, the
fairy peal of marriage bells. Again and again it swept
along the dark row up above, and each time more faint
and distant, but after it there err no knelL
Toe clock struck, and I rang out the midnight peal,
but the Marna] knell Iry gone from that too, and I
heard in it only a welcome for the new born year."
The hell-ringer paused. A gleam of strange light
pared across hi. far and softened Its rugged lines ; and
his voice grew gentle, with a sudden tender pathos.
"Little maiden with the deep blue eyes., so like those
other eyes now dim with weeping, li.tnn. A sorrowful
mother pressed your baby lips to the dead face on the
pillow that January nicht. Go and tell her an old
man's run.inig. Her husband waits for her; a silent
link in God a great chain, to draw her heavenward ;
no bridal robe. on earth so white and pure as theirs
aril be, when next they meet. Tell the forlorn
mourner what it is icy belle mean. The marriage peal
ono, rung, rings oat for ever ; but the diurnal knell la of
earth. Into the land where they will meet can come no
earthly taint ; no bound of sorrow, and no funeral knell."
—The agrarian's Family Magavuisit.