came hurrying towards them from a door at the back of
his house that looked into the churchyard.

He had a spade over his shoulder and a great key in his hand.

Putting the key into a huge padlock, he turned back its rusty bolt,
and the gate swung stiff on its hinges, which were thick with moss.

Then Ralph, still holding the mare's head, walked into the churchyard
with Sim behind him.

"Here's a spot which has never been used," said the old man, pointing
to a patch close at hand where long stalks of yarrow crept up through
the snow. "It's fresh mould, sir, and on the bright days the sun
shines on it."

"Let it be here," said Ralph.

The clerk immediately cleared away the snow, marked out his ground
with the edge of the spade, and began his work.

Ralph and Sim, with Betsy, stood a pace or two apart. It was still
early morning, and none came near the little company gathered there.

Now and again the old man paused in his work to catch his breath or to
wipe the perspiration from his brow. His communicativeness at such
moments of intermission would have been almost equal to his reticence
at an earlier stage, but Ralph was in no humor to encourage his
garrulity, and Sim stood speechless, with something like terror in his
eyes. "Yes, we've had no minister since Michaelmas; that, you know,
was when the new Act came In," said the clerk.

"What Act?" Ralph asked.

"Why, sir, you never mean that you don't know about the Act of
Uniformity?"

"That's what I do mean, my friend," said Ralph.

"Don't know the Act of Uniformity! Have you heard of the Five Mile
Bill?"

"No."

"Nor the Test Bill that the Bishop wants to get afoot?"

"No."

"Deary me, deary me," said the clerk, with undisguised horror at
Ralph's ignorance of the projected ecclesiastical enactments of his
King and country. Then, with a twinkle in the corner of his upward eye
as he held his head aside, the old man said,--

"Perhaps your honor has been away in foreign parts?"

Ralph had to decline this respectable cover for his want of
familiarity with matters which were obviously vital concerns, and
perhaps the subjects of daily conversation, with his interlocutor.

The clerk had resumed his labors. When he paused again it was in order
to enlighten Ralph's ignorance on these solemn topics.

"You see, sir, the old 'piscopacy is back again, and the John
Presbyters that joined it are snug in their churches, but the
Presbyters that would not join it