Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/211

Rh "Lighten our darkness" was being said, the church was suddenly illumined by a blaze from the head of Samuel. The other had struck a match and had set it on fire. It burnt like a torch. Happily the blacksmith, who was also in the choir, threw his great coat over Samuel's head, extinguished the flame, but held the head so muffled in the thick coat as almost to suffocate the boy.

The culprit was let off with a reprimand. Later he played another prank. He was in the belfry while the ringers were practising, among whom was he, and so also was Samuel. In the midst of a peal he suddenly and unexpectedly made a loop of his rope and flung it round Samuel's neck. The result was that the young ringer was carried up to the floor above, bumped his head against it, and, providentially, was caught as he descended and the bell-rope arrested by a strong hand, before it could carry Samuel again aloft.

How it was that the lad's neck was not dislocated, nor his skull broken, was a marvel to the whole parish. It was, however, concluded, that Samuel was as stiff-necked as a Jew, and so escaped, and also had a head as thick as a skittle-ball, and that had also served to protect him from fatal consequences. Again did Roberts escape with a reprimand, and a warning that any further practical joke would entail severe punishment.

Roberts, however, was irrepressible. One evening he was drinking at the inn on Lew Down along with a mate called Reed. Whether in joke or in earnest I cannot say, but a quarrel ensued about this man's name. When they left the inn, Roberts flung his comrade over the hedge into a field, and having got possession of a flail, swore he would thrash all the barley-corn out of Reed. Now in this part of Devon, reed is straw that has been thrashed out carefully so as not to break the stalks, in order that it may be employed in thatching. Whether it was in flinging Reed over the hedge, or in the thrashing, I cannot say, but Roberts broke Reed's leg.

This was too much of a joke to be overlooked. He was sentenced to sit in the stocks for so many hours.

The sentence was executed. But the culprit was so treated with cider and Devonshire cream that his stomach was upset, with disastrous results.