s. philip and s. james—the monkey-barge and the dog—war, plague, and fire—the dulness of everyday life.
there were two churches in our town. not that the town was so very large or the churches so very small as to make this needful. on the contrary, the town was of modest size, with no traces of having ever been much bigger, and the churches were very large and very handsome. that is, they were fine outside, and might have been very imposing within but for the painted galleries which blocked up the arches above and the tall pews which dwarfed the majestic rows of pillars below. they were not more than a quarter of a mile apart. one was dedicated to s. philip and the other to s. james, and they were commonly called "the brother churches." in the tower of each hung a peal of eight bells.
one clergyman served both the brother churches, and the services were at s. philip one week and at s. [60]james the next. we were so accustomed to this that it never struck us as odd. what did seem odd, and perhaps a little dull, was that people in other places should have to go to the same church week after week.
there was only one day in the year on which both the peals of bells were heard, the feast of ss. philip and james, which is also may day. then there was morning prayer at s. philip and evening prayer at s. james, and the bells rang changes and cannons, and went on ringing by turns all the evening, the bell-ringers being escorted from one church to another with may garlands and a sort of triumphal procession. the churches were decorated, and flags put out on the towers, and everybody in the congregation was expected to carry a nosegay.
rupert and i and henrietta and baby cecil and the servants always enjoyed this thoroughly, and thought the churches delightfully sweet; but my mother said the smell of the cottage nosegays and the noise of the bells made her feel very ill, which was a pity.
fred johnson once told me some wonderful stories about the brother churches. we had gone over the canal to a field not far from the cricketing field, but it was a sort of water-meadow, and lower down, and opposite to the churches, which made us [61]think of them. we had gone there partly to get yellow flags to try and grow them in tubs as johnson's father did water-lilies, and partly to watch for a canal-boat or "monkey-barge," which was expected up with coal. fred knew the old man, and we hoped to go home as part of the cargo if the old man's dog would let us; but he was a rough terrier, with an exaggerated conscience, and strongly objected to anything coming on board the boat which was not in the bill of lading. he could not even reconcile himself to the fact that people not connected with barges took the liberty of walking on the canal banks.
"he've been a-going up and down with me these fifteen year," said the old man, "and he barks at 'em still." he barked so fiercely at us that fred would not go on board, to my great annoyance, for i never feel afraid of dogs, and was quite sure i could see a disposition to wag about the stumpy tail of the terrier in spite of his "bowfs."
i may have been wrong, but once or twice i fancied that fred shirked adventures which seemed nothing to me; and i felt this to be very odd, because i am not as brave as i should like to be, and fred is grandson to the navy captain.
i think fred wanted to make me forget the canal-boat, which i followed with regretful eyes, for he began talking about the churches.
[62]
"it must be splendid to hear all sixteen bells going at once," said he.
"they never do," said i, unmollified.
"they do—sometimes," said fred slowly, and so impressively that i was constrained to ask "when?"
"in great emergencies," was fred's reply, which startled me. but we had only lived in the place for part of our lives, and fred's family belonged to it, so he must know better than i.
"is it to call the doctor?" i asked, thinking of drowning, and broken bones, and apoplectic fits.
"it's to call everybody," said fred; "that is in time of war, when the town is in danger. and when the great plague was here, s. philip and s. james both tolled all day long with their bells muffled. but when there's a fire they ring backwards, as witches say prayers, you know."
war and the plague had not been here for a very long time, and there had been no fire in the town in my remembrance; but fred said that awful calamities of the kind had happened within the memory of man, when the town was still built in great part of wood, and that one night, during a high gale, the whole place, except a few houses, had been destroyed by fire. after this the streets were rebuilt of stone and bricks.
these new tales which fred told me, of places i [63]knew, had a terrible interest peculiarly their own. for the captain's dangers were over for good now, but war, plague, and fire in the town might come again.
i thought of them by day, and dreamed of them by night. once i remember being awakened, as i fancied, by the clanging of the two peals in discordant unison, and as i opened my eyes a bright light on the wall convinced me that the town was on fire. fred's vivid descriptions rushed to my mind, and i looked out expecting to see s. philip and s. james standing up like dark rocks in a sea of dancing flames, their bells ringing backwards, "as witches say prayers." it was only when i saw both the towers standing grey and quiet above the grey and quiet town, and when i found that the light upon the wall came from the street lamp below, that my head seemed to grow clearer, and i knew that no bells were ringing, and that those i fancied i heard were only the prolonged echoes of a bad dream.
i was very glad that it was so, and i did not exactly wish for war or the plague to come back; and yet the more i heard of fred's tales the more restless i grew, because the days were so dull, and because we never went anywhere, and nothing ever happened.
