380 ENGLISH SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 



very strange ! Why, what are they burning, peat perhaps, or stubble 



Aft 



grass : 



'* No, no, Sir, they 're burning the farmers' hay and corn, and may- 

 be a few cows and horses. Lord, Sir! have ye never heard of 

 'cindery fires before? why they 're as common as blackberries here- 

 abouts." 



" Never, my girl ; but who are burning them not the farmers 

 themselves, I suppose ?" 



" No, Sir, it's just the poor starving people." 



" Indeed ! and do they expect to be better off by destroying the 

 means of their support, and preventing the farmers cultivating the 

 soil ?" 



" 'Deed, Sir, it's very odd ! but supper's ready, Sir." 



As I descended the stairs, my reflections were Surely this is a 

 singular people ; they burn the means of subsistence, in order to live 

 better ; but I will inquire farther to-morrow. 



On the following morning I was early afoot, and, after an hour's 

 brisk walking, reached the smoking ruins of an extensive farm-yard. 

 A considerable amount of property had been destroyed, and the 

 owner declared that he was a ruined man. On inquiring what had 

 led to the catastrophe, I was told that the neighbouring cottars had 

 refused to work at such a rate of wages as he could afford to pay, 

 and that consequently he had been obliged to purchase a mechanical 

 contrivance, to assist him in thrashing, and cutting vegetables, which 

 was no sooner set to work, than his premises were fired by the very 

 parties who had forced him to adopt such a step. I forbore to press 

 the sufferer with farther questions, but was exceedingly astonished to 

 find so little confidence, and community of feeling, between the em- 

 ployers and the employed. Musing on this singular people, on my 

 road back, 1 passed a hale old man, in the dress of an ordinary pea- 

 sant, leaning against the gate of a cottage, and very composedly 

 smoking, though it was mid forenoon ; and assistance was much 

 wanted at the place I had just left. I stopped, and spoke to him. 

 " Not at work, my friend, this fine morning !" 



" Work, Sir! no, no, there 's very little o' that going on i' these 

 parts." 



" How so, pray ? you have a rich and fruitful country, and one 

 which I should conceive to be well able to repay the labours of the 

 husbandman." 



" Oa the country 's well enough but you're one of the spies I 

 reckon, by your speering. You '11 learn naught fro' me however." 

 " If there be such things as spies, my friend, I am not one of them, 



I assure you. 1 arrived at N but the day before yesterday, 



and leave it this evening. I am a native of a foreign and distant 

 country, and am visiting your neighbourhood out of a desire to know 

 something of the condition of its inhabitants, and was led here by 

 seeing the fire at Farmer Trueman's last night from the window of my 

 inn." 



" Well, that makes a difference to be sure, and so I 've no objec- 

 tion to having a bit of a confab wi' ye, in a neighbourly way. Will 

 ye come in and sit down, as it 's a longish stretch to N ?" I 



