The Baffling Bell
The Baffling Bell. |
| Each
day, at 12 noon, a bell rings out over the parish of St. Joseph's. Have
you ever heard it? It is called the Angelus bell. Many, many years ago,
before everyone had clocks, they didn't know when to stop work to eat
their lunch, so the bell would tell them . Do you think they ate: a) fish fingers, b)curry and chips, c)a ploughman's lunch, d)something else? They would also say the prayers we can say today when we hear the Angelus bell: The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived by the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary... "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to your word". Hail Mary... Pray for us, Holy Mother of God; make us worthy of the promises of Christ. |
Have you ever wondered who rings the bell? A lady called Mary rings it nearly every single day at mid-day. For a long time, the bell was broken, but Mary so longed for it to sound over the parish again that one day, she had it fixed. Do you think she did this: a) because she used to belong to a famous orchestra, and missed making music;
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Anyway,
one particular day, a cold, wet Tuesday in January, Mary went to ring
the bell as usual, as the time drew near to 12 o'clock. Mary climbed
the stairs, just inside the main doors of St. Joseph's church, until
she reached the landing where a small door opens into the tall, white
bell-tower that you see from the outside. Mary opened the door and bent
low to see the dangling bell-rope. She carefully wrapped the rope round
one hand, gripped it with the other and tugged..... ....."chug"....sounded the rope... Mary was amazed...... she tried again.... ...."chug" went the rope, a sickening, dull "chug", no ring, no satisfying spring as the rope bounced upwards again...only a painful jolt to Mary's hand. Mary felt upset, as she could not understand why the beautiful clear note of the bell had gone, and she knew there were people in the parish who would miss it. You may be ill in bed and feeling very lonely, but the bell reminded you of all the people at the church and cheered you up; you might be doing some horrible, boring task such as cleaning the oven, but the bell reminded you to think beautiful thoughts. She hurried through the church to tell the workers in the shop. Barbara, a very clever person there, had the bright idea of asking Graham to take a look...he was changing the old stables, which belonged to the church, into a wonderful new building where people could share things. He worked so fast you could hardly see his arms moving. He could do almost anything... Almost... but not quite. For Graham, putting down the hammer, saw, screw-driver and paintbrush, which he was using all at the same time, rushed to help...but Graham, too, could not get the rope to pull and the bell to ring. No, because, when he felt around inside the dark tower, he found an old light switch, which turned on a dim light....and THEN he could see what the problem was... the rope was pushed against the side of the bell-tower, jammed near the metal ladder which leads up to the very top, by a mysterious dark shape; some kind of a large, uneven, lumpy parcel. Whatever could it be? What is it, and what happens next? Please add in your ideas or draw the pictures. |
Why
not post your answers as a comment at the bottom of the page |