The Squire's Young Folk by Eleanora H. Stooke

HALDON village consisted of about a score of thatched cottages, dotted around a large square of waste ground always spoken of as Haldon Green. At one side of the Green was the parish church. Close by, between the churchyard and the vicarage, was the schoolroom, a modern red brick building where the entertainment for the villagers was to be held on Christmas Eve.

As Mrs. Coker's well-known pony-carriage, drawn by the no less well-known brown pony, Bess, drew up before the post office, which was also the one shop of the place where groceries and household commodities could be obtained, heads appeared at the cottage windows; and a group of children, who had been playing a game of "last-touch" on the Green, drew near in anticipation of being spoken to by the occupants of the carriage-Mrs. Coker and Miss Lilian.