Village Time. 69 



they do not care for them when green, and reject 

 them when rotten. Have they discovered that green 

 wood shrinks in drying, and that rotten wood is 

 untrustworthy? Rooks, jackdaws, and pigeons find 

 their building materials in this wa}^, where trees or 

 hedges have been cut ; yet even then it must require 

 some patience. They use also a great deal of mate- 

 rial rearranged from the nests of last year that is, 

 rooks and jackdaws. 



Stepping out at last into the belfry, be careful how 

 you tread ; for the flooring is worm-eaten, and here 

 and there planks are loose : keep your foot, if possi- 

 ble, on the beams, which at least are fixed.' It is a 

 giddy height to fall from down to the stone pavement 

 below, where the ringers stand. Their ropes are 

 bound round with list or cloth, or some such thing, 

 for a better grasp for the hand. High as it is to this 

 the first floor, if you should attempt to ring one of 

 these bells, and forget to let the rope slip quickly, it 

 will jerk you almost to the ceiling : thus many a man 

 has broken his bones close to the font where he was 

 christened as a child. 



Against the wall up here are iron clamps to 

 strengthen the ancient fabric, settling somewhat in 

 its latter days ; and, opening the worm-eaten door 

 of the clock-case the key stands in it you may 

 study the works of the old clock for a full hour, if so 

 it please you ; for the clerk is away laboring in the 

 field, and his aged wife, who produced the key of 

 the church and pointed the nearest way across the 

 meadow, has gone to the spring. The ancient build- 

 ing, standing lonely on the hill, is utterly deserted ; 

 the creak of the boards under foot or the grate of 



