of, regardless of expense. A coat was laid on and polished; then another
coat for increased blackness; and lastly a third, to give the perfect and
mirror-like jet which the hoped-for rencounter demanded.

It being Christmas-day, the tranter prepared himself with Sunday
particularity. Loud sousing and snorting noises were heard to proceed
from a tub in the back quarters of the dwelling, proclaiming that he was
there performing his great Sunday wash, lasting half-an-hour, to which
his washings on working-day mornings were mere flashes in the pan.
Vanishing into the outhouse with a large brown towel, and the above-named
bubblings and snortings being carried on for about twenty minutes, the
tranter would appear round the edge of the door, smelling like a summer
fog, and looking as if he had just narrowly escaped a watery grave with
the loss of much of his clothes, having since been weeping bitterly till
his eyes were red; a crystal drop of water hanging ornamentally at the
bottom of each ear, one at the tip of his nose, and others in the form of
spangles about his hair.

After a great deal of crunching upon the sanded stone floor by the feet
of father, son, and grandson as they moved to and fro in these
preparations, the bass-viol and fiddles were taken from their nook, and
the strings examined and screwed a little above concert-pitch, that they
might keep their tone when the service began, to obviate the awkward
contingency of having to retune them at the back of the gallery during a
cough, sneeze, or amen--an inconvenience which had been known to arise in
damp wintry weather.

The three left the door and paced down Mellstock-lane and across the ewe-
lease, bearing under their arms the instruments in faded green-baize
bags, and old brown music-books in their hands; Dick continually finding