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S ON THE MflrfWE*' 

 I * * 



FEBRUARY IN BROADLAND, 



' At dusk steers homeward with a plenteous freight, 

 The crazy vessel groans beneath the weight. 

 A tidy housewife waits his coming home, 

 Gets dry apparel, and cleans up her room. 



And spreads a homely plenty o'er his board.' 



Life of a Fennian, 1771. 



HE countryside has assumed a bleak and dreary aspect. The snows of 

 January have given way before the drizzly rainfall. As our train 

 rattles along through the barren fields which lie on either side our 

 route, and spread away to the distant woodland, or are lost in the 

 horizon, we cannot fail to notice the barrenness which characterises 

 the environs of Broadland in the month of i February fill-dike/ 

 Here and there Farmer Griles or his neighbours have fastened an unwilling team 



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