Page 67 - Fairbrass

heard ; the shrilling of the swifts, as they
swirled in the soft air, kept up a fitful

accompaniment to these homely sounds ;
and the restless flight of a much perturbed

swallow that had somehow found its way
into the church, and was quite as anxious

to get out of it as the fidgetty school-children
who half filled the galleries, was a thing to
watch with eager interest*

But Fairbrass was unmindful for the

moment of these active feathered friends of
his. He was wondering with all his might
who could tell him why it was that the ser­

vices that his parents joined in so heartily,
and so often, and the sermons that they

listened to so attentively, seemed of such
little real use to them in their everyday lives,

and why, this being the indisputable fact,
they did not give up coming to church and

try some other source of aid and comfort,
when, looking up, his eye encountered that

of a very constant and very silent member
of the congregation, known as the Kneeling

Knight.