152 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



a wood. A little further on by the roadside the 

 benevolent landlord — would that there were more 

 like him! — had placed a garden bench in the shade 

 for tired travellers to rest on. The man was making 

 his way to this seat, and after he had settled down 

 I went back and sat by him. He was a big healthy 

 fine-looking man, a native of the village, a son of a 

 farm labourer. He, more ambitious, left his home 

 as a youth to find other employment, but it was a 

 dangerous trade he took up and as a result of an 

 explosion of powder in his face his vision was des- 

 troyed for ever. He came back to his village which, 

 he said, he would never quit again. It was the one 

 place known to him and although it was now covered 

 with darkness he would still see it with his inner eye 

 — the streets and houses, the fields, roads, hedges, 

 woods, and streams — all this area which had been 

 his playground in his early years was so well remem- 

 bered that he could still find his way about in it. 



He told me he made his living by selling tea which 

 he procured in quantities direct from a London 

 merchant and retailed to the cottages in half- and 

 quarter-pound packets. They took their tea from him 

 because he served them at their own doors. On 

 certain days of the week he visited the neighbouring 

 villages, doing a circuit of twenty-five or thirty miles 

 in the day. On these occasions he had a little girl 

 of ten to guide him. Of course she had to attend school 

 on most days, but on Saturdays she was free and she 

 could generally get permission to absent herself from 

 school on another day. Failing her he had to take 



