Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/325

 The Charcoal-Burner. 313 He put on such a grand air while he was getting ready for the sermon, that all thought he must be a very fine preacher. But when he did begin, it wasn't so very fine after all. "The words, my dear brethren, which you were going to heai this day, have gone to the dogs ; but come again, some other Sunday, my dear parishioners, and you shall hear something else ! And thus endeth this sermon ! " Well, all the people thought he was a queer parson, for they had never heard such a sermon ; but then they thought he might improve, and if not— why, they would know how to deal with him. Next Sunday the church was so crowded by people who wanted to hear the new parson, that there was scarcely room for them all in the church. As soon as the parson arrived, he went straight up into the pulpit, and then he stood for some time without saying a word, but all at once he made a start and cried out : " I say, old mother Berit, why do you sit so far back in the church ? " — " Oh, my boots are in such a bad state, your reverence !" said she. — " But you could have got an old pig's skin and made yourself a new pair of boots, and then you could have come to the front like other decent people. — Besides, I wish you would all consider which way you are going, for I see that some of you, when you are tfoming to church, come from the north, and others come from the south, and the same when you leave church ; but I suppose you stop and gossip on the way, and then they wonder at home what has become of you. Yea ! who knows what will become of us all ? And then I have to give notice, that the old parson's widow has lost her black mare. She had fetlocks round her hoofs, and a long mane, and more of this kind which I sha'n't mention in this place. And then I have a big hole in my old breeches pocket, which I know, but you don't ! But whether any of you have a piece of some stuff, which would suit the hole, neither you nor I know." Some of the people were well satisfied with the sermon, and believed that he in time would make a good parson, but most of them thought it was really too bad ; and when the dean came round on one of his visits, they complained to him of the parson and