ionally solemn and
thoughtful mood among two or three of the oldest in the band, as if they
were thinking they might be joined by the phantoms of dead friends who
had been of their number in earlier years, and now were mute in the
churchyard under flattening mounds--friends who had shown greater zest
for melody in their time than was shown in this; or that some past voice
of a semi-transparent figure might quaver from some bedroom-window its
acknowledgment of their nocturnal greeting, instead of a familiar living
neighbour. Whether this were fact or fancy, the younger members of the
choir met together with their customary thoughtlessness and buoyancy.
When they had gathered by the stone stump of the cross in the middle of
the village, near the White Horse Inn, which they made their starting
point, some one observed that they were full early, that it was not yet
twelve o'clock. The local waits of those days mostly refrained from
sounding a note before Christmas morning had astronomically arrived, and
not caring to return to their beer, they decided to begin with some
outlying cottages in Sidlinch Lane, where the people had no clocks, and
would not know whether it were night or morning. In that direction they
accordingly went; and as they ascended to higher ground their attention
was attracted by a light beyond the houses, quite at the top of the lane.

The road from Chalk-Newton to Broad Sidlinch is about two miles long and
in the middle of its course, where it passes over the ridge dividing the
two villages, it crosses at right angles, as has been stated, the lonely
monotonous old highway known as Long Ash Lane, which runs, straight as a
surveyor's line, many miles north and south of this spot, on the
foundation of a Roman road, and has often been mentioned in these
narratives. Though now quite deserted and grass-grown, at the beginning
of the century it was well kept and frequented by traffic. The
glimmering light appeared to come from the precise point where the roads
intersected.

'I think I know what that mid mean!' one of the group remarked.

They stood a few moments, discussing the probability of the light having
origin in an event of which rumours had reached them, and resolved to go
up the hill.

Approaching the high land their conjectures were strengthened. Long Ash
Lane cut athwart them, right and left; and they saw that at the junction
of the four ways, under the hand-post, a grave was dug, into whic