TAKING REINS IN HAND. 73 



Laborers 



HAVING decided upon a plan, the next thing to 

 be considered is the personal agency for its 

 administration. 



There was once a time, if we may believe a great 

 many tender pastorals and madrigals such as Kit 

 Marlowe sang, when there were milkmaids : and the 

 sweetest of Overbury s &quot; Characters &quot; is his little 

 sketch of the faire damsel, who hath such fingers 

 &quot; that in milking a cow, it seemes that so sweet a 

 milk-presse makes the milk the whiter or sweeter.&quot; 

 But milkmaids now-a-days are mostly Connaught 

 men, in cowhide boots and black satin waistcoats, 

 who say &quot; begorra,&quot; and beat the cows with the 

 milking stool. 



Overbury says of the ancient British type &quot; Her 

 breath is her own, which sents all the yeare long of 

 June, like a newmade haycock.&quot; 



And I may say of the present representative 

 His breath is his own, which c sents all the yeare 

 long of proof spirits, like a newmade still. 



Overbury tenderly says &quot;Thus lives she, and all 

 her care is she may die in the spring time, to have 

 store of flowers stucke upon her winding sheet.&quot; 



And I, as pathetically : Thus fares he, and all 

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