There were a good many trees in the church-yard, and as I looked down, the
tops of them in their richest foliage hid all the graves directly below me,
except a single flat stone looking up through an opening in the leaves,
which seemed to have been just made for it to let it see the top of the
tower. Upon the stone a child was seated playing with a few flowers she had
gathered, not once looking up to the gilded vanes that rose from the four
pinnacles at the corners of the tower. I turned to the eastern side, and
looked over upon the church roof. It lay far below--looking very narrow and
small, but long, with the four ridges of four steep roofs stretching away
to the eastern end. It was in excellent repair, for the parish was almost
all in one lord's possession, and he was proud of his church: between them
he and Mr. Shepherd had made it beautiful to behold and strong to endure.
When I turned to look again, the little child was gone. Some butterfly
fancy had seized her, and she was away. A little lamb was in her place,
nibbling at the grass that grew on the side of the next mound. And when I
looked seaward there was a sloop, like a white-winged sea-bird, rounding
the end of a high projecting rock from the south, to bear up the little
channel that led to the gates of the harbour canal.
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