The Country Parson. 137 



points of religion, they believed in the squire, the parson, 

 the devil, the gallows, and ghosts. For they lived in the 

 days when wicked boys and girls were taken to see the 

 men go in a cart to " Hang Fair," and believed that many 

 ghosts walked, and that certain corners were bad to pass at 

 night. But I will trouble you to find a man who could 

 burn a pig, throw down a tree, or take a swarm of bees like 

 " Old Joe." To see him burn a pig ; didn't he wet his finger 

 to see which way the wind was, and arrange the straw so 

 artfully that every bit of the hair was taken off '' wi'out 

 burning a hole in his breeches anywhere," as he said. Why, 

 the pig, within an hour of his disease, was like a beautifully 

 coloured meerschaum, and it would reconcile anyone to 

 cremation, if it was not carried further. The old man only 

 professed to do three things, viz., ''to tack bees," "vail a 

 tree," and " singe a hog," and he did all three things well, 

 though he never learnt to read or write. 



It required some effort to keep one's countenance, when 

 the church was chilly, to see Farmer Jemmy, by way of 

 protection to his head, put on a fustian cap with a shade, 

 which he had bought at a fair, and decorated with crossed 

 guns and dogs' heads. He was a grand old boy who, as he 

 said, " went to bed wi' the buds (birds) mostly, and got up 

 wi' the buds ; who lived in his kitchen and swung the pot ; " 

 in other words, gave dinner-parties, one of which we shall 

 enjoy presently. We often had an interlude in the shape 

 of a raid on the schoolboys by the master after a contra- 

 band apple, which had rolled out and had been recovered, 

 and could not bs found, and a lot of heads were punched 

 and ears boxed on suspicion, probably the innocent suffering 

 for the guilty. The plough-boys and farm labourers 

 generally stared into vacancy, and clattered in with their 

 hobnailed boots, and clattered out again. Remember, I 

 am speaking now of the dark ages years ago, when farmers 



