She and her charges climbed up to the window above, which happily had
a broken pane, tried to identify the chimes of the church bells by the
notable nursery rhyme,
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clements, &c.,
watched the church-goers as far as they could see them, and then came
down to such reading of the service and other Sunday occupations as
Aurelia could devise. On the Sunday of her durance it was such a
broiling day that, unable to bear the heat of her parlour, she
established herself and her charges in a nook of the court, close
under the window, but shaded by the wall, which was covered with an
immense bush of overhanging ivy, and by the elm tree in the court.
Here she made Fay and Letty say their catechism, and the Psalm she
had been teaching them in the week, and then rewarded them with a
Bible story, that of Daniel in the den of lions. Once or twice the
terrier (whose name she had learnt was Bob) had pricked his ears,
and the children had thought there was a noise, but the sparrows in
the ivy might be accountable for a great deal, and the little ones
were to much wrapped in her tale to be attentive to anything else.
"Then it came true!" said Letty. "His God Whom he trusted did deliver
him out of the den of lions?"
"God always does deliver people when they trust Him," said Fay, with
gleaming eyes.
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