194 FIELD AND HEDGEROW, 



servants and the class from which they are supplied. 

 * Gawd help the pore missis as gets hold of you ! ' ex- 

 claimed a cottage woman to her daughter, whose goings 

 on had not been as they should be : ' God help the poor 

 mistress who has to put up with you ! ' A remark that 

 would be most emphatically echoed by many a farmer's 

 wife and country resident. ' Doan't you stop if her hol- 

 lers at 'ee,' said another cottage mother to her girl, just 

 departing for service — that is, don't stop if you don't like 

 it ; don't stop if your mistress finds the least fault. ' Come 

 along home if you don't like it' Home to what ? In this 

 instance it was a most wretched hovel, literally built in 

 a ditch ; no convenience, no sanitation ; and the father a 

 drunkard, who scarcely brought enough money indoors 

 to supply bread. 



You would imagine that a mother in such a position 

 would impress upon her children the necessity of endea- ■ 

 vouring to do something. For the sake of that spirit of , 

 independence in which they seem to take so much pride, 

 one would suppose they would desire to see their chil- 

 dren able to support themselves. But it is just the 

 reverse ; the poorer folk are, the less they seem to care 

 to try to do something. 'You come home if you don't 

 like it ; ' and stay about the hovel in slatternly idle- 

 ness, tails bedraggled and torn, thin boots out at the toes 

 and down at the heels, half starved on potatoes and weak 

 tea — stay till you fall into disgrace, and lose the only 

 thing you possess in the world — your birthright, your 

 character. Strange advice it was for a mother to give. 



Nor is the feeling confined to the slatternly section, 

 but often exhibited by very respectable cottagers indeed. 



* My mother never would go out to service — she 

 wouldn't go,' said a servant to her mistress, one day talk- 

 ing confidentially. 



