Stranica 132 [132]
VII
congregation. Indeed, he could scarcely remember any
Sunday on which the church had been so crowded. People
appeared upon the scene who seldom did him the honor of coming to
hear his sermons. [here were even people from Hazelton, which was
the next parish. There were hearty, sunburned farmers, stout, comfort¬
able, apple-cheeked wives in their best bonnets and most gorgeous
shawls, and half a dozen children or so to each family. ‘The doctor's
wife was there, with her four daughters. Mrs. Kimsey and Mr. Kimsey,
who kept the druggist’s shop, and made pills, and did up powders
for everybody within ten miles, sat in their pew; Mrs. Dibble in
hers; Miss Smiff, the village dressmaker, and her friend Miss Perkins,
the milliner, sat in theirs; the doctor’s young man was present, and
the druggists apprentice; in fact, almost every family on the
county side was represented, in one way or another.
In the course of the preceding week, many wonderful stories had
been told of little Lord Fauntleroy. Mrs. Dibble had been kept so
busy attending to customers who came in to buy a pennyworth of
needles or a ha’porth of tape and to hear what she had to relate, that
the little shop bell over the door had nearly tinkled itself to death
over the coming and going. Mrs. Dibble knew exactly how his
small lordship’s rooms had been furnished for him, what expensive
toys had been bought, how there was a beautiful brown pony await¬
ing him, and a small groom to attend it, and a little dog-cart, with
() the following Sunday morning, Mr. Mordaunt had a large
Ii2