THE COUNTRY-SIDE: SUSSEX. 87 



carried their instruments, the smith being able to put a 

 better edge on. Other blacksmiths or carpenters, if 

 they required a particularly good edge for some purpose, 

 came to him. This art he had acquired from his grand- 

 father as a sort of heirloom or secret. The grandfather 

 while at work used to trouble and puzzle himself how 

 to get a very sharp edge, and at length one night he 

 dreamed how to do it. From that time he became 

 prosperous. If a celebrated sonata was revealed in a 

 dream, why not the way to sharpen a chisel ? 



When he was tired the drier said he was * dreggy.' 

 They were talking of the lambs, and how that dry 

 season they had scarcely any sweetbreads. The sweet- 

 breads were so scanty, the butchers did not even offer them 

 for sale ; the lambs had fed on dry food. In seasons 

 when there was plenty of grass and green food they had 

 good large sweetbreads, white as milk. The character 

 of the food does thus under some circumstances really 

 alter the condition of an organ. The sweetbread is the 

 pancreas ; now a deficient pancreatic action is supposed 

 to play a great part in consumption and other wasting 

 diseases. Have we here, then, an indication that when 

 the pancreas may be suspected plenty of succulent food 

 and plenty of liquid are nature's remedies? We looked 

 over at the pigs in the sty. They were rooting about 

 in a mess of garbage. * Oh, what dirty things pigs are ! ' 

 said a lady. * Yes, ma'am ; they're rightly named,' said 

 he. Some scientific gentleman in the district had a 

 large telescope with which he made frequent observa- 

 tions, and at times would let a labouring man look at 

 the moon. ' Ah,' said our friend, shaking his head in a 

 solemn, impressive way, ' my brother, he see through 

 it ; he see great rocks and seas up there. He say he 

 never want to see through it no more. He wish he 



