140 More Tales of the Birds 



he had been ministering so quietly for half a 

 century. The old Scholar, bent and withered, 

 was there to see the last of his friend, and the 

 Doctor and his wife looked sadly down from the 

 tower. They never saw him again outside his 

 own garden. 



A new Vicar came, a kindly, shrewd, and 

 active man, whose sense of the right order of 

 things was sadly wounded as he examined the 

 church from end to end in company with his 

 churchwardens. " You have let the fabric fall 

 into ruin, Mr. Harding," he said, " into ruin : I 

 can't use a milder word. We must scrape to- 

 gether what we can, and make it fit for divine 

 worship. Let us come up into the tower and 

 see how things are there." 



The crestfallen churchwardens followed him 

 up the well-worn stairs, but were left far behind, 

 and his active youthful figure disappeared in 

 front of them into the darkness. When they 

 found him at last in the ringers' chamber, he was 

 kicking at a great heap of refuse accumulated on 

 the floor in a corner. 



" What on earth is this, Mr. Harding?" asked 



