The Shepherd who Watched by Night by Maud Van Buren

_Thomas Nelson Page_

The place had nothing distinguished or even perhaps distinctive about / it except its trees and the tapering spire of a church lifting above / them. It was not unlike a hundred other places that one sees as one / travels through the country. It called itself a town; but it was / hardly more than a village. One long street, now paved on both sides, / climbed the hill, where the old post-road used to run in from the / country on one side and out again on the other, passing a dingy, large / house with whitewashed pillars, formerly known as the tavern, but now / calling itself "The Inn. " This, with two or three cross-streets and / a short street or two on either side of the main street, constituted / "the town. " A number of good houses, and a few very good, indeed, sat / back in yards dignified by fine trees. Three or four churches stood on / corners, as far apart apparently as possible. Several of them were much / newer and fresher painted than the one with the spire and cross; but / this was the only old one and was generally spoken of as "The Church," / as the rector was meant when the people spoke of "the preacher. " It / sat back from the street, in a sort of sordid seclusion, and near / it, yet more retired, was an old mansion, also dilapidated, with a / wide porch, much decayed, and to the side and a little behind it, an / out-building or two, one of which was also occupied as a dwelling. The / former was the rectory, and the smaller dwelling was where the old / woman lived who took care of the rectory, cleaned up the two or three / rooms which the rector used since his wife's death, and furnished / him his meals.[3]