DEDICA TION 



My dear Hartcup, 



Had your niother — ivlio foiitid interest in these pages 

 and who to the end was fund of quiet reading about country 

 thiftgs — lived to see them finished, I should have asked, as some 

 small token of their author's affection a?td respect, to be allowed 

 to set her name upon a book that tells of the home where she was 

 born and the fields in which she spent her distant youth. 



But it cannot be; so to you, as a friend and fellozo inhabita?tt 



of A ready, to you who also have had experience of the frowning 



face of adi'crse agricultural balance sheets, I venture to offer 



them. ^ 



Believe me 



Ever sincerely yours, 



H. RIDER HAGGARD. 

 DiTcniNGHAM : 1899. 



Herbert Hartcup, Esq. 



