Making Even 149 



final settlement. In nineteen times in twenty, Henery 

 gives the particulars of a bill, and the word that some- 

 thing is ' leaft to pay.' Sometimes you judge from 

 the smallness of the amount' leaft to pay 4^.,' 

 ' leaft to pay 3^.,' ' Leaft to pay id.,' for example 

 that Henery must have suffered from a chronic lack 

 of small change, but just as frequently the cause 

 appears to be a mere dislike to settlement. Indeed, it 

 would be a mistake to suppose that impecuniosity had 

 anything to do with the matter ; for it is plain that 

 Henery was a ' warm ' man, with a good deal of stock 

 and no difficulty in finding money, whether to lend or 

 spend. The ' grippy ' small farmer made it a rule 

 never to part with cash if he could help it. Phrase 

 the second is still more significant, in that it shows 

 that Henery seems scarce ever to have paid wages 

 outright. It is always ' / made even ' with Robert or 

 Abram : with the additions now and then, ' and paid 

 him in full o. 5 s. od.' Every possible bill was treated 

 in like wise. Henery makes even with his cottagers' 

 rent, ' dew at lady day last past,' with ' Miss Pamer ' 

 for his tithes, with ' An Solt ' for the commons of his 

 sheep. The expression is still in common use. ' But 

 if farm labourers,' you ask of complaining village 

 tradesmen, ' spend so much on beer, and dress, and 

 cheap trips, and deal with you on credit, how do you 

 live, and how do they manage to get out of their 

 difficulties ? ' ' Why, we make even somehow,' is the 

 answer : ' by taking a bag of potatoes, a cask of butter, 



