CHAPTER XVI. THE VILLAGE CONCERT.
The viols sound in festal hall
Where come the merry mummers all,
The minstrels sing their roundelay
Of doughty knights and ladies gay,
And as the carol music swells
The jester shakes his cap and bells,
While lords and dames of high degree
Approve the Christ-tide revelry
And happy in the pleasant din
Amazed the foolish rustics grin.
The school-room was a long, old-fashioned apartment, with plain oak walls and a high roof. The wide windows were set low down, and when seated at their desks the scholars could look out and see the old stone cross of the market-place and the heavily foliaged elms that waved their green leaves in front of the queer red-tiled houses. The walls were hung round with maps of the five divisions of the world, and above the t
