Many of the parishioners to this day, no doubt, will call to
mind the quaint way in which, if he thought any one was misbehaving
himself in church, he would rise slowly from his seat with such majesty
as his diminutive stature could command, and shading his spectacles with
his hand, gaze sternly in the offending quarter; how on a certain
Communion Sunday he forgot the wine to be used in the sacred office, and
when my father directed his attention to the omission, after sundry
dives under the altar-cloth he at last produced a common rush basket,
and from it a black bottle; how on another Sunday, being desirous to
free the church from smoke which had escaped from a refractory stove, he
deliberately mounted upon the altar and remained standing there while he
opened a small lattice in the east window. All these circumstances will,
no doubt, be recalled by some one or other in the parish. But, gentle
reader, be not overharsh in passing judgment upon him. I verily believe
that he had no more desire to be irreverent than you or I have. The
fault lay rather in the religious coldness and carelessness of those
days than in him. He was liked and respected by every one as a harmless,
inoffensive, good-hearted old fellow, and I cannot better close this
brief account of some of his peculiarities than by saying--as I do with
all my heart--Peace to his ashes!
* * * * *
Mr.
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