Doctor and Mrs. Jackson 137 



came in on various errands. But his old friends 

 died off one by one : he followed them to the 

 churchyard, and would stand with bare head 

 there, listening to the Vicar reading the prayers, 

 while Dr. and Mrs. Jackson looked down on the 

 scene from the tower as usual. And really it 

 seemed as if they would soon be the only old 

 friends left to him. 



For the greater part of the year they were his 

 companions most of the day : they became a part 

 of his life, and we called them his familiar spirits. 

 When he woke in the morning he could see them 

 as he lay in bed, and sometimes they would come 

 to his window if he had put out a breakfast for 

 them overnight. But as a rule they took their 

 own breakfast in the fields with the rooks and 

 starlings and peewits, while he was dressing ; and 

 when, after his own breakfast, he took his walk 

 up and down the garden path, they were to be 

 seen perched on their gurgoyles, preening their 

 feathers, chatting, and turning their wise old 

 heads round and round in great ease of body and 

 contentment of mind. In the early spring, after 

 a bath in the large flat earthenware pan, which 



