Green Henry

Suddenly there was a sound of humming and piping overhead. Fiddle, bass viol, clarinet were being tuned, and a French horn was indulging in melancholy sounds. While the active portion of the assembly broke up and went upstairs to the spacious loft, the schoolmaster said: ‘Is there really to be dancing? I thought this custom had at last been done away with. Certainly this village is the only one for far and wide where it is ever practised! I honour age, but all that is old is not necessarily honourable and fitting! Meantime, you may as well look on, children, so that later on you can tell about it, for it is to be hoped that dancing at funeral rites will eventually be abolished!’

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