LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2685, 15 November 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

A TRIP WITH ST. SIMON’S CHOIR, AND WHAT CAME OE IT. ‘Cookson,’ my vicar said to me one morning, -when I entered his study to discuss some parish matters, ‘ we are going to give the choir a day at tho sea for a treat this year. Tho churchwardens have just been in and settled it all. There is an excursion to Stanton St. Edmunds next Thursday week that will suit capitally ; so you and Triggs must go round the town for subscriptions. ” Mr Triggs had been senior curate at St. Simon’s for some years, whereas my acquaintance with the parish was limited to a few mouths. The vicar was very popular, and deservedly so ; but he always shifted on his curates any work that was at all calculated to diminish his popularity. St. Simon’s choir was also popular. It was considered the best in Avonfield, and so it ought to have been, for it was petted and humoured to an unheard of extent. There fore we had no difficulty in collecting the sum wo required. Everything was arranged for our trip on the following Thursday. A line day was the only thing wo could not engage beforehand ; but Triggs’ barometer as good as promised it, and Triggs said his weather-glass always kept its word. The members of the choir appeared in- full force at the usual evening service. At the conclusion of the practice, which always succeeded it, Triggs made a few hopeful remarks about the excursion on tho morrow, trusting we should have a fine day, and requesting that every one would endeavor to be punctual at the station. I was engaged at the moment in placing the shawl round pretty Maude Malony’s plump little shoulders, so I did not catch all ho said. But I uttered a mental ‘ So be it!' at tho conclusion, which referred to more than had just met tho ear. Of course we saw Maude and her sister Norah back to the vicarage. There were still one or two little final matters that I wished to mention to the vicar ; so on reaching the door I at once responded to their invitation to supper, and we had a very lively meal, discussing tho likely and unlikely events of the proposed trip to Stanton. None of us had been there, but report said the place might have been made on purpose for our expedition. The train was to start at nine o’clock ; so I was up betimes the next morning, for it had been arranged that we should be at the station half an hour before the actual time of starting. I remember that I bestowed particular pains upon my outer man that morning. 1 may bo excused if I just mention that Nature had been kind to me in the first instance, so it was by no means labor in vain. TriggSj whom I overtook on my way to the station, exclaimed, * Why, Cookson, how smart you are ! One might think you were going to a wedding !’ I laughed feebly, and said it was in honor of the day, but J. am afraid that was not the whole truth. Triggs was dressed in his oldest and shabbiest, and looked exceedingly rusty. But then he had no particular inducement to be otherwise, for he was already provided for. One of five young ladies down in Northumberland had been waiting for him for the last four years. We found the platform tolerably full of people, and Triggs thereupon grew very fussy and important. He drew up his squad of chorister boys in a safe corner in tho station, and then placed me as a watchdog over them. St. Simbn’s was a very busy parish, and the vicar was too fully employed to bo able to spare a day at the sea. So he had deputed Triggs and myself to take his place. Triggs moved backwards and forwards.like a pendulum between our post and the entrance to the station, impatiently awaiting the remainder of our party. They straggled .lip by twos and threes, and after greeting them successively, Triggs returned to inquire how we were getting on. Judging from the powerful whiffs of pomatum and the shining faces, the juveniles, though not actuated by the same motives, had been quite as careful over their toilettes as I myself. They were all in holiday trim, and talking gaily and eagerly over the enjoyments which they anticipated the day would bring to them. But my attention was not so taken up with the youngsters that I failed to notice when the vicarage party appeared. - Not all the Triggses in the world could have prevented me from going up to shake hands with Maude. What a pretty pair she and her sister made ! But I had no eyes for any but Maude. It seemed to me she had never looked bonnier or brighter than she did that August morning, dressed in a tasteful costume fitting her little figure to a nicety. There was some pink about it-the costume, I mean—that just matched the coral of her lips, and I always had a weakness for pink. The most becoming of dainty hats, all muslin and flowers, concealed for the most part her soft brown hair, and sent deep shadows into her expressive blue eyes, where the lights and shadows so constantly played that J sometimes wondered which was light and which was shadow. But there was no time for more than an impressive hand shake and a few commonplace remarks ; for the all-important Triggs came up at the same moment with a rebuke for leaving my charge on his lips and the tickets in his hand. He begged that we would at once take our places in the train. So while he collected his forces I pounced upon a first-class carriage. The vicarage party occupied all the seats but one, and that one was just opposite to Maude. How covetously I looked at it. Maude’s eyes met mine. ‘ Aren’t you coming in, Mr Cookson V Although I was only junior curate, for very shame I could not desert Triggs at the outset. Sympathise, gentle reader, with the self-denial I displayed. ‘Keep a place for me,’ I whispered ; ‘I will see if 1 can come,’ aud then hurried off. Tho train was a very long one, and the platform crowded, but the protruded head of a churchwarden showed me tho vicinity of St. Simon’s choir. The carriage was closely packed with the choir and certain parishioners who had joined our party. Triggs was in his glory. Evidently I was not needed. ‘You’re all right there!’ I cried. ‘Oh, all right!’ T shall be at the other end of the train with the Malonys.’ I moved off quickly, in fear and trembling lest I should be called back again, and only breathed freely when the guard slammed our carriage door, and I found myself securely shut in, with pretty Maude Malony facing me. I felt then that my exertions in regard to my appearance had not been in vain. It was a consolatory reflection that Maude’s observant eyes could discover no speck nor spot -upon my carefully brushed garments. But I was not out of danger yet. The train was on the point of starting, when a wide-awake appeared at the window, ‘ Cookson, we can make room for you in our carriage if you like.’ ‘ Thanks, but I have no wish to change my quarters.’ Triggs was a good fellow, but his perceptions were of the bluntest order. After all, there were some advantages in being junior curate, and at that moment I would not have changed places with Triggs for the world. Stanton St. Edmunds was a veritable baby among watering-places, having only existed for a few years ; but it had all the appearance of being three or four times its real age. Tho houses were all built of dark drab stone, and posted on the cliffs anywhere and anyhow, showing a defiance of the regulation squares and terraces that was quite refreshing. The station abutted on the beach, and there, after what was to me at least a delightful two hours’ journey, the train unloaded her heavy freight. We of Avonfield formed at once into an orderly procession, with Triggs at tho head, and myself and the more important of the St. Simon functionaries at the tail. In this manner we marched out of tho station, and then dismissed the choir for half-au-hour’s stroll on tho shore. Dinner had been ordered at an hotel hard by, and by way of filling up tho intervening time, the Misses Malony said they would like to see tho'town. I was at their side in an instant. On the plea of fatigue, Mrs Malony excused herself from joining us. Of course the senior curate devoted himself to the vicar’s wife, so the vigilant Triggs was safely disposed of. As far as that went, ‘ seeing ’ the town was an anomaly. The whole place could have been completely inspected in ten minutes ; and if I had been asked a quarter of an hour afterwards what I had seen I could not have told. All that I saw was the bonny face of my companion

in pink, and. all that I heard was the music of her voice and laugh. That was quite enough for me! I thought Stanton St. Edmunds tho most interesting town I had ever visited. To be continued.