182 THE PLOUGHING 



Construction of Destructors, following the clerk like 

 dogs that sniff on a weak trail. 



It was an innocent project " to drain and plough 

 the . . . Marsh " that aroused in the befogged 

 Council an enthusiasm of comprehension such as 

 could never have been struck from minds of only 

 ordinary density. Then the old dogs gave tongue. 

 " The ploughing of the marsh ! " they cried, and 



clapped their hats on, and swore, "By , sir," 



they'd had enough for one day, Council or no Council ! 



As an immemorial trespasser upon that particular 

 piece of bogland, I had first wind of the project. It 

 was, in fact, one of several estates of which I am the 

 effective owner, although the nominal proprietors 

 thereof hold title-deeds which yield them a certain 

 fictitious sense of possession. 



There is no law to compel landed proprietors to 

 know anything about their land, so long as they 

 meet the State's charges upon it ; and to judge by 

 their general attitude of indifference toward it, it 

 would appear that they defray the cost of upkeep 

 and administration from philanthropic motives, 

 possibly for the benefit of such irresponsible " Jeans 

 sans Terre " as myself. I have always given them 

 the benefit of any doubt which might remain as to 

 their generosity in this sense, freely availing myself 

 of it, without abusing it. The sun rises for me on 

 ducal acres and municipal tipping-grounds, and my 

 intermittent tenure of either is shared by things that 

 creep and fly with similar irresponsibility. Of the 

 two, perhaps, I am the less responsible ; for no 

 brown rat or canny Kestrel can appraise as I the 

 validity of a title to land forced to follow without 



