A Flood. 95 



CHAPTER VI. 



HAMLET COTTAGE ASTROLOGY GHOST LORE 



HERBS THE WAGON AND ITS CREW STILES 



THE TRYSTING-PLACE THE THATCHER SMUG- 

 GLERS AGUE. 



IN most large rural parishes there is at least one 

 small hamlet a mile or two distant from the main 

 village. A few houses and cottages stand loosely 

 scattered about the fields, no two of them together ; 

 so separated, indeed, by hedges, meadows, and 

 copses, as hardly to be called even a hamlet. The 

 communication with the village is maintained by a 

 long, winding narrow lane ; but foot-passengers fol- 

 low a shorter path across the fields, which in winter 

 is sure to be ankle deep in mud, by the gateways 

 and stiles. The lane, at the same time, is crossed 

 by a torrent, which may spread out to thirty yards 

 wide in the hollow, shallow at the edges, but swift 

 and deep in the middle. 



If you wait a couple of hours it will subside, as 

 the farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches 

 to let the flood pass. If you are in a hurry, you 

 must climb up into the double-mound beside the lane, 

 and force your way along it between thorns and 

 stoles, till you reach the channel through which the 

 current is rushing. Across that an old tree trunk 



