op. Most of the inhabitants were
long-lived, early deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine) being
exceptional; and most of the old people were proud of their age,
especially the sexton, who would be ninety-nine come Martinmas, and
whose father remembered a man who had carried arrows, as a boy, for the
battle of Flodden Field. The Gray Goose and the big Miss Jessamine were
the only elderly persons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss
Jessamine never mentioned any one's age, or recalled the exact year in
which anything had happened. She said that she had been taught that it
was bad manners to do so "in a mixed assembly." The Gray Goose also
avoided dates; but this was partly because her brain, though
intelligent, was not mathematical, and computation was beyond her. She
never got farther than "last Michaelmas," "the Michaelmas before that,"
and "the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before that." After this her
head, which was small, became confused, and she said, "Ga, ga!" and
changed the subject.

But she remembered the little Miss Jessamine, the Miss Jessamine with
the "conspicuous hair." Her aunt, the big Miss Jessamine, said it was
her only fault. The hair was clean, was abundant, was glossy; but do
what you would with it, it never looked quite like other people's. And
at church, after Saturday night's wash, it shone like the best brass
fender after a spring cleaning. In short, it was conspicuous, which does
not become a young woman, especially in church.

Those were worrying times altogether, and the Green was used for strange
purposes. A political meeting was held on it with the village Cobbler in
the chair, and a speaker who came by stage-coach from the town, where
they had wrecked the bakers' shops, and discussed the price of bread. He
came a second time by stage; but the people had heard something about
him in the meanwhile, and they did not keep him on the Green. They took
him to the pond and tried to make him swim, which he could not do, and
the whole affair was very disturbing to all quiet and peaceable fowls.
After which another man came, and preached sermons on the Green, and a
great many people went to hear him; for those were "trying times," and
folk ran hither and thither for comfort. And then what did they do but
drill the ploughboys on the Green, to get them ready to fight the
French, and teach them the goose-step! However, that came to an end at
last; for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and th