IN THE HAYFIELD 145 



and tenant alike. I should have thought that, 

 with a year to do it in, it would not be hard to get 

 ten shillings off each acre in this field, for instance.' 



' Ah, but there 's plenty more as isn't worth 

 half a crown,' he replied. ' That 's wur the 

 kill-cow do come in.' 



' And talking o' mysteries,' he says presently, 

 ' it fair beats me to think how we did live when I 

 were a boy. My mother had nine children. Her 

 husband had just a shillun a day. A shillun a 

 day ' (high up and through his nose). 



' And wheat ? ' I asked. 



' Wheat flour was clane out o' the question. 

 What we lived on was barley meal at sixteen 

 shillings a bushel. That 's the very price it stood 

 at. Tea was four shillings a pound, and we didn't 

 get much o' that.' 



' No, not much on six shillings a week.' 



' Of course, we most of us went to work. I 

 went when I was seven, and got twopence a day. 

 An' then we got Irish taturs and salt. Gurt Irish 

 taturs as big as this ' (holding up two fists each as 

 large as most potatoes I have seen). 



We worked on, both of us appalled at the 

 question how the family was brought up on so 

 much of this food as five or six shillings a week 

 would buy. It was only last night that I saw 

 the ducks fed on the same food barley meal and 

 potatoes. 



' There was whate in plenty for the rats and 

 mice, but not for us,' continues the old man. 



