SHEPHERDS AND WHEATEARS 127 



end, and will be no better off and no worse off whether 

 the years be fat or lean. 



One would imagine that the old system must have 

 worked well on the downs, as it undoubtedly does in 

 other lands where I have known it, and I can only 

 suppose that its discontinuance was the result of that 



WHEATEAR 



widening of the line dividing employer from employed 

 which has been so general. The farmer did not im- 

 prove his position by the change I believe he lost 

 more than he gained: it was simply that the old 

 relations between master and servant were out of 

 date. He was a better educated man, less simple in 

 his life, than his forefathers, and therefore at a greater 



