"And let us have no brawls on the ale bench," said the old parson,--"let our May-pole be the rod of peace; so that none may rail at our sports and dances, but rather take note of us as merry folk and honest neighbours."
With loud thanks, and lively promises, and rude invocations of Heaven's best gifts on him, and his lady, and his absent sons, the party now faced about, and with the accompaniment of pipe and tabor, and a couple of fiddles, moved off at a dancing pace to pay the like honours at the door of the chief franklin, and to deck the village street as they passed along.
Parson Noble now passed round to his favourite terrace walk, that overlooked a rich and extensive level, and taking up his lute, which lay in a little alcove at one end of it, he breathed out his morning hymn of thanksgiving, as was his wont, and thus composed, went into his study, and secluded himself for an hour from all interruption. At the close he again came into his garden, where he commonly laboured both for pleasure and health, every day of his life, in company with the attached old servant, who, for his quaint words and ways, had been long known to the village by the name of plain Peter,--an epithet, which, as it gave him credit for blunt honesty, as well as for a cast in his eye, he readily pardoned,--nay, some said he was proud of it;--for what manner of man is it that hath not a pride in something?
"Master," said Peter, putting down his rake as the parson came up the walk, "I have won a silver groat on your words this day."
"Why, last market day, when I was in the kitchen at the old Pack Horse at Axbridge, that vinegar-faced old hypocrite, Master Pynche, the staymaker, comes in, and asks me to bring out Betsy Blount's new stays.
"Says I, 'That I'll do for Betsy's sake,--a lass that hasn't her better for a good heart, or a pretty face, in all Somersetshire.'
"'Verily, Master Peter, I think,' said he, 'thy speech might have more respect to me, and more decency to the damsel, but thou savourest not of the things that be from above:--thou art of the earth, earthy.'
"'Why, for the matter of things above,' said I, 'Master Pynche, I don't pretend to any skill in moonshine; and as to being of the earth, that I don't deny, and thirsty earth too; with that I put to my lips the cup of ale that I had in hand, and drank it down.'