EROOM-CUTTERS. 377 



ged shoeless boy, and a half starved mongrel dog, 

 which may now and then be useful in enabling 

 him to snare a hare or rabbit. I was returning 

 homewards one evening and fell in with this group. 

 The face of the man was hollow and careworn, 

 and somewhat grim, his eyes appeared little 

 better than blanks, and deep sunk in his head, but 

 overthatched with a white bushy brow his nose 

 was long and thin, and his jaws like those of a 

 skeleton, but grizzled over with a stubborn beard 

 of a fortnight's growth. The boy was as ragged 

 as he could well be, but shewed evident marks of 

 cunning and roguery in his countenance. The 

 dog was the very personification of a pickle, and 

 after sniffing at my legs, much to my discomfiture, 

 uttered a growl, and retreated behind his master, 

 eying me, however, all the time with any thing but 

 a complacent look. 



I have always found that the best way of getting 

 into conversation, with the sort of person I have 

 attempted to describe, was by appearing to take 

 an interest in his apparently forlorn condition. 

 The man seemed an exile from common sympathy, 

 and one of those beings whom drudgery, and pri- 

 vation had left nothing to fear, and nothing to hope 

 for. He complained of his altered condition since 

 the enclosures, and how difficult he found it to 

 maintain his family. He did not attempt to con- 

 ceal the sort of life he lead, hah 7 thief and half 



