Dickon answered with his all-perceiving animal charmer s smile.
They sing it i church, he said. Mother says she believes th
skylarks sings it when they gets up i th mornin .
If she says that, it must be a nice song, Colin answered. I ve never
been in a church myself. I was always too ill. Sing it, Dickon. I want
to hear it.
Dickon was quite simple and unaffected about it. He understood what
Colin felt better than Colin did himself. He understood by a sort of
instinct so natural that he did not know it was understanding. He
pulled off his cap and looked round still smiling.
Tha must take off tha cap, he said to Colin, an so mun tha ,
Ben an tha mun stand up, tha knows.
Colin took off his cap and the sun shone on and warmed his thick hair
as he watched Dickon intently. Ben Weatherstaff scrambled up from his
knees and bared his head too with a sort of puzzled half-resentful look
on his old face as if he didn t know exactly why he was doing this
remarkable thing.
Dickon stood out among the trees and rose-bushes and began to sing in
quite a simple matter-of-fact way and in a nice strong boy voice:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
When he had finished, Ben Weatherstaff was standing quite still with
his jaws set obstinately but with a disturbed look in his eyes fixed on
Colin. Colin s face was thoughtful and appreciative.
It is a very nice song, he said. I like it. Perhaps it means just
what I mean when I want to shout out that I am thankful to the Magic.
He stopped and thought in a puzzled way. Perhaps they are both the
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