THE ADVENT BELLS

The Advent bells are ringing in many parishes throughout various parts of England during this month of December, if I may judge from my own neighbourhood—on the western borders of Berks—where, at least three times in the week, I hear their merry peals break gladsomely upon the dark stillness of these cold evenings, from many a steeple around. In the Roman States and the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the "pifferari" go about playing on a kind of rough hautboy and bag-pipes, before the pictures of the Madonna, hung up at the corners of streets and in shops, all through Advent time; but why are t…