Excerpt from Eustace Marchmont: A Friend of the People For it was Christmas Eve, and Farmer Teazel was christening his apple-trees, according to the time honoured custom Of the place. And when the trees were being thus christened, there was cider to be had for the asking; and the farmer's cider was famed as being the best in all St. Bride's, or indeed in any Of the adjacent parishes. The moon shone frostily bright in a clear dark sky. A thin white carpet of sparkling frost coated the ground; but the wind blew from the west over the rippling sea, and was neither cruel nor fierce, so that even little chil dren were caught up by their mothers to assist at this yearly ceremony; and Farmer Teazel's orchard had, by ten O'clock, become the centre Of local attraction, fully a hundred voices swelling the rude chant as the largest and best trees in the plantation were singled out as the recipients Of the peculiar attentions incident to the ceremony. First, Copious libations Of cider were poured round the roots Of these trees, whilst large toast Sops were placed amid the bare branches; all this time the chant was sung again and again, and the young girls and little children danced round in a ring, joining their shriller voices with the rougher tones Of the men. The cider can that supplied the trees with their libations passed freely amongst the singers, whose voices grew hoarse with something beyond exercise. When the serenading and watering had been sufficiently accomplished, guns were fired through the branches Of the chosen trees, and the company broke up, feeling that now they had done what was necessary to ensure a good crop Of cider-apples for the ensuing year. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.