MANNERS IN ARCADY. 307 



apparently swallows insults that Hodge would 

 never endure for a moment without forcible 

 retaliation. I remember a man who had 

 been working for me in the hay-fields telling 

 me with a wry face that he had knocked 

 another man down, and that he was sorry 

 for it. I said, " Then, why don't you go and 

 apologise to him ? " He stared at me with 

 astonishment, and then replied with the 

 hauteur of a Bourbon prince, " I never 

 apologised to nobody in my life ! No, I 

 couldna' apologise to no one ! " 



That the poor have a keen sense of justice 

 and a fine feeling for human dignity I could 

 further illustrate by an episode which occurred 

 in a certain parish. The vicar, in his sermon, 

 described in almost every particular except 

 that of mentioning his name, a sinner in their 

 midst. At the next parish meeting a labourer 

 got up and expressed the views of most of 

 those present by saying that if any one was 

 going to be drummed out of the parish, he 

 was going to be drummed out along with 

 him, and that the parishioners objected to 

 personal attacks being made from the pulpit. 



The attitude of the country poor, in the 

 south of England at any rate, where feudalism 



