PLOUGHMAN AND SHEPHERD 



the plough holds ; some of these may have dialect 

 variations in different districts. The best way to 

 understand these sounds is to watch the effect of 

 each one on the horses ; or to watch the actions 

 of the horses which cause the ploughman to speak 

 the word. Then we may find that the sounds 

 which we took to be orders to the horse or horses 

 to stop are orders to go on, or the converse. 



Ploughing in mild February weather is not 

 a severe task, but in January the men are often 

 at work on a surface crusted hard. Then, with 

 the horses, or one of them, not perfectly trained, 

 the ploughman is jerked and jolted violently 

 about the furrow, and will keep up a running 

 comment or protest about his team's behaviour. 

 Thus the most enduring ploughman may seem 

 testy. What sounds like an unreasonable grumble 

 at struggling, patient beasts may set one against 

 him. But this is not necessarily a sign of im- 

 patience in the ploughman ; and it may show him 

 to be thorough and painstaking. Even with the 

 ground in good mood for the plough, there is, 

 to the trained eye, much difference between the 

 work of the careful ploughman and the careless. 

 It is much more marked in fields that have been 

 ploughed in unfavourable conditions. 



The shepherd's language is chiefly for his dog. 

 But, besides the words he employs to get his sheep 

 driven where he will, he has a small vocabulary 

 of terms strange to many ears. For instance, 

 what does the " dead-fold " of the shepherd of 



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