THE FAERY YEAR 



the Hampshire Downs mean ? It sounds ominous, 

 at this, the lambing season, yet means nothing 

 worse than the fold of wattled hurdles, which is 

 not moved about the field like the other folds. 

 The dead-fold has been set in a dip of the downs 

 close to the homestead, and by a rough, lonely 

 road that leads from quiet village to even quieter. 

 Not a particularly sheltered field this, for the hedges 

 are cut low, and the north-east winds drive through 

 them, sweeping down over the slopes, but as con- 

 venient a place as could be found hereabouts ; for 

 it lies on a bit of rough sainfoin which is to be 

 ploughed up this year, and within easy reach of 

 eighty or a hundred acres of swedes and other 

 roots, into which sheep and lambs must presently 

 be turned. Then there is the stack of threshed 

 straw close at hand, with which warm quarters are 

 provided for the ewes ; and the hay on which the 

 sheep are fed in the morning and evening, as a 

 change from swedes. 



The dead-fold is formed of wattle hurdles 

 bound about with swathes of straw. Here the 

 labouring sheep with lambs unborn sleep at night, 

 and others with lambs too young and tender to be 

 left out with no protection from the cold save that 

 given by the hurdles of the pen. Just without 

 the dead-fold is the shepherd's moveable iron hut. 

 Warmed by the stove, it is not comfortless ; but 

 the deep, long sleep after the hard day is a luxury 

 the shepherd may not take. An hour's sleep 

 a full hour, for he is asleep as soon as he is down 

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