12 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



a father whose wages were 8s. a week. Siicli 

 was the dogged endurance of this father in 

 the battle of Hfe that he made it a rule to 

 supplement his meagre wages by making one 

 straw skep every evening after work, and it 

 was part of the son's work as a lad to walk 

 many miles to sell these skeps to beekeepers 

 at Is. each. In the winter months this "un- 

 skilled labourer" worked in the woods and 

 made hurdles for sheep, and now, as an aged 

 man, has become a small farmer. 



Coombe lay under a cloud the day I visited 

 it. I found sad-eyed children carrying flowers 

 to the churchyard. A brave old Christian 

 soldier had just been laid to rest in God's Acre, 

 which he had guarded so long and so well. 

 This was the vicar, aged eighty-three. 



*'Ah, I can remember the day," said my 

 innkeeper friend to me — " it was about Joseph 

 Arch's time — when my father was only getting 

 8s. a week. I mind very well the Sunday 

 morning when the vicar gave out in his 

 sermon, 'You farmers go to Newbury once 

 a week and spend in that one day on your 

 dinner and your drinks more than you give 

 your carter for the whole week ! ' That 

 evening the vicar was locked out of his own 



