My York friends were, however, well to the front, and the
children nodded to me, and smiled at one another as they saw me led like
a lamb to the service by my two small guardians.
It was a lovely day, and the sandy ground was dry, and the congregation
sat on the rough coarse grass or perched on the sand hillocks round. As
for the old boat, it was occupied by the choir, and little Jack, having
seen me safely to the spot, climbed into it and stood proudly in the
stern. He had a hymn-book in his hand, which I knew he could not read,
for he was holding it upside down, but he looked at it as long and as
earnestly as if he could understand every word. Marjorie planted herself
beside me, I suppose to watch me, in case I showed signs of running away
before the service was over.
Then just before eleven, and when quite a large company of people had
gathered on the green, her father arrived. He was a man of about forty,
and his face gave me the impression that he had known trouble, and yet I
fancied as I looked further at him that the trouble, whatever it was,
had ended.
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