"
The boys shrank back out of countenance; and Sam, who alone had not
spoken, looked up into her face with a merry air, as if he were
gratified by her spirited way of discomfiting them.
Osmond tried to recover, and muttered, "What a sell!" rather
impudently; but they were now near the churchyard, and Mrs. Greville
turning round, all was hushed.
Christabel felt much vexed that all this should have happened just
before going into church; she felt a good deal ruffled herself, and
feared that Bessie's head was filled with nonsense, if Hal's were not
with something worse.
The church looked pretty outside, with the old weather-boarded wooden
belfry rising above the tiled roof and western gable; and it was
neatly kept but not pretty within, the walls all done over with pale
buff wash, and the wood-work very clumsy. Sam and Susan behaved well
and attentively; but Bessie fidgeted into her mamma's place, and
would stand upon a hassock. Miss Fosbrook was much afraid it was to
keep in sight of the beautiful bird. Hal yawned; and Johnnie not
only fidgeted unbearably himself, but made his sister Annie do the
same, till Miss Fosbrook scarcely felt as if she was at church, and
made up her mind to tell Johnnie that she should leave him at home
with the babies unless he changed his ways.
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