A Village in a Valley [antikvár]

chapter i CHURCH PARADE The accents of Allways are many and various, and nowhere are they heard to better advantage than in church. Especially during the singing of the Benedicite. For each verse of this great canticle, as you may remember, begins with the interjection O. And as the chant progresses, it is difficult not to be struck by the extraordinary number of different sounds which different people make, on being confronted by the same vowel. The vicar, for example, says 'OoohP He says it with a bright smile, like a child who has climbed a fence and suddenly sees an orchard whose trees are fiery with fruit. 'Oooh,ye Ice and Snow, bless ye the LordP cries the vicar, with such boyish exultation that one feels he would like to run out and make a snowball, here and now, and throw it up with a shout of glee, to the grey sky up and up 11