THE FAERY YEAR 



long droughts. Wet weather tries the woodman 

 in another way. Only the hardiest man can work 

 in drenched clothes, and yet escape the shooting 

 pains and gnawing aches of rheumatism ; and even 

 he may pay the common smart of the outdoor 

 worker when old age conies on. 



Wood Tonic 



But, taking fair days with wet or frosty, what a 

 grand physical life this is the strenuous woodman 

 lives ! There is about it the blessed independence 

 which the aristocracy of the working world always 

 and rightly values. Say he works on another man's 

 lot of wood. He is paid so much a hurdle four- 

 pence is the usual rate. It is piece-work, a de- 

 scription with a sinister sound in some trades. But 

 much of the best work on the earth is done by 

 the piece. 



By stern thrift and industry he can rise a step, 

 buy an acre or two of the standing underwood at 

 autumn sales, and be his own capitalist. A capital 

 of thirty, even twenty, pounds is enough to start 

 on, given skill and endurance in the work. He 

 can cut, bind, and carry home across his shoulder 

 his own fuel ; money for rent and food is sure 

 enough so soon as he has piled up in the copse a 

 few dozen good hurdles, for the demand for these 

 is fully equal to the supply in these days. 



The hurdler's is a branch of woodwork which 

 90 



