'
She stroked Aaron's brown head, and thought it must do Master
Marner good to see such a 'pictur of a child'. But Marner, on the
other side of the hearth, saw the neat-featured rosy face as a mere
dim round, with two dark spots in it.
'And he's got a voice like a bird- you wouldn't think,' Dolly
went on; 'he can sing a Christmas carril as his father's taught him;
and I take it for a token as he'll come to good, as he can learn the
good tunes so quick. Come, Aaron, stan' up and sing the carril to
Master Marner, come.'
Aaron replied by rubbing his forehead against his mother's
shoulder.
'Oh, that's naughty,' said Dolly, gently. 'Stan' up, when mother
tells you, and let me hold the cake till you've done.'
Aaron was not indisposed to display his talents, even to an ogre,
under protecting circumstances; and after a few more signs of coyness,
consisting chiefly in rubbing the backs of his hands over his eyes,
and then peeping between them at Master Marner, to see if he looked
anxious for the 'carril', he at length allowed his head to be duly
adjusted, and standing behind the table, which let him appear above it
only as far as his broad frill, so that he looked like a cherubic head
untroubled with a body, he began with a clear chirp, and in a melody
that had the rhythm of an industrious hammer,
'God rest you, merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas-day.
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