372 A FARMER'S YEAR 



^vith good reason — she attributed her discomfort to its presence. 

 At any rate she attacked it fiercely, knocking the poor little 

 creature and Hood into a corner of the hospital, and roaring so 

 loudly that, although these events took place at the dead of night, 

 people in the village got out of their beds and came to see what 

 might be the matter. By degrees, however, she was quieted, and 

 to-day seems to be quite reconciled to her offspring. 



October 18. — Yesterday we drilled the Ape field, No. 37, with 

 beans, which went in very well, as the rainfall, although consider- 

 able, has not been sufficient to clog the land. At night, however, 

 heavy showers fell, with the result that we cannot sow wheat to- 

 day as we intended. About a fortnight ago a poor boy, aged 

 twelve, the son of a working man, while playing in Bungay, was 

 so unfortunate as to swallow a tin ' squeaker,' a toy producing an 

 abominable noise, which the lad was clever at manufacturing out 

 of steel ribs taken from worn-out stays. The doctor and the father's 

 employer urged his parents to send him at once to Norwich 

 Hospital, where the obstruction could have been located with 

 the Rontgen rays, or otherwise, and removed by operation. With 

 the terrible blindness which affects so many persons in this class of 

 life, they would not consent, and when at last their permission 

 was obtained it proved too late, for the patient had developed 

 peritonitis, of which he is now dead. It is very difficult to combat 

 the hatred and mistrust of hospitals that so often afflicts such people. 

 In this instance I believe that it cost his parents the life of a son 

 to whom they were deeply devoted. 



October 22. — The reader may remember my writing of an aged 

 relative who in her youth assisted at the planting of the trees which 

 grow about this house. To-day their autumn leaves fell upon her 

 bier as she went by to burial. She was the last of her generation, 

 and her death breaks another link with the past, for with her is 

 buried much local history. Last Sunday I was talking to her in 



