He then went round the church, and was busily employed for a considerable time.
He returned to the porch, carried his bucket in, and locked the door, leaving the key inside.
That night Abel Eaves, a shepherd, was led by his dog, in search of a strayed sheep, to a place rarely trodden by the foot of man or beast, viz., the west side of Cairnhope Peak.

He came home pale and disturbed, and sat by the fireside in dead silence.

"What ails thee, my man ?" said Janet, his wife; "and there's the very dog keeps a whimpering." "What ails us, wife?
Pincher and me?
We have seen summat." "What was it ?" inquired the woman, suddenly lowering her voice.
"Cairnhope old church all o' fire inside." "Bless us and save us!" said Janet, in a whisper.
"And the fire it did come and go as if hell was a blowing at it.

One while the windows was a dull red like, and the next they did flare so, I thought it would all burst out in a blaze.

And so 'twould, but, bless your heart, their heads ha'n't ached this hundred year and more, as lighted that there devilish fire." He paused a moment, then said, with sudden gravity and resignation and even a sort of half business-like air, "Wife, ye may make my shroud, and sew it and all; but I wouldn't buy the stuff of Bess Crummles; she is an ill-tongued woman, and came near making mischief between you and me last Lammermas as ever was." "Shroud!" cried Mrs.Eaves, getting seriously alarmed.