144 ARRIVAL OF THE GUESTS 



to remove the snow from the front door, a sure 

 sign that guests were expected. As he shovelled, 

 he sang : 



" I saw dree ships come sailing in, 

 Sailing in, come sailing in, 

 I saw dree sliips come sailing in, 

 On Christmas Day in the morning " — 



shovelling and singing till the steps and the path 

 all the way to the gate were clear. No sooner 

 had he finished than the farmer's three sons 

 arrived, with their wives and families, the women 

 riding pillion behind their husbands, and the 

 children in panniers borne by donkeys. There 

 was quite a string of donkeys ; the headgear 

 of each and of the little foal which closed the 

 procession, was decked with holly ; the merry 

 voices of the laughing, chattering children 

 rang out most musically. Last of all came 

 the fiddler, a long, lean man, shivering in his 

 thin garments as he ran, his nose blue with 

 cold, his violin in a green baize bag under his 

 arm. He threw a snowball at Andrew, then 

 skipped up the steps like a lamplighter, and as 

 the door closed on the heels of his cloth boots, 

 it shut in the welcome with which the children 

 greeted his arrival. 



Now the work that Andrew got through 



