200 WHIP AND SPUR. 



bit wanting here and there, marking the exact 

 sizes of the varied openings, the grand old Lich- 

 field windows, perfect as you see them now in 

 this softened moonlight, had come back to enrich 

 forevermore the dear old church to whose glory 

 they had shone in the bygone centuries, and whose 

 sore trials their absence had so long recalled. 



" Kind stranger," said he, " this is a true tale. 

 Sceptics have questioned it, but it is true ! true ! 

 And I thank Heaven that it has been permitted 

 to me, who have grown old in the love of this 

 sacred pile, to live to see, in this crowning act 

 of its restoration, the higher help the hand of 

 man has had in performing its holy work." 



His upturned blue eyes were moistened with 

 tears, and his voice trembled with emotion. I 

 led him gently away and to the doorstep of the 

 Hospital of St. John the Baptist, where we parted 

 in silence, and forever. 



Supping at the Swan Inn, I took the late train 

 for Liverpool and home, bringing with me an ideal 

 Lichfield, to which it would perhaps have been 

 rash to hold the light of a Lichfield day. 



