220 A FARMER'S YEAR 



Hood sold the wool at Loddon at eighteen shillings the tod, 

 or two stone. This is a very poor price, less by half a crown than 

 we got last year, and that was low enough. Wool, it is explained, 

 is ' down.' There is no profit in it at such prices. 



The gast ewe has paid for the neglect of her maternal duties 

 by being sold to the butcher for 2/. a very fair price. This 

 evening I found Hood bargaining with a young man who wanted 

 to buy a lot of five half-grown pigs. We have to be rid of them 

 because they are already fat, owing to the quantity of milk which 

 they get here at the Home Farm. As the ill time for pork is at 

 hand it would probably not pay to kill them or even to send them 

 to London, and they are too large and fleshy to stand till after 

 harvest. The scene at the sale was amusing in a small way. The 

 purchaser had arrived in a cart, in which a young woman was 

 seated, and stood by the horse's head. Opposite to him, awaiting 

 offers and watching his customer's face, as a good seller ought to 

 do, was Hood. 



Young man (excitedly) : ' 6/. los. ? ' 



Hood (staring at him stonily like an aggrieved sphinx) : 'No? 



Young man turns his cart round, then, thinking better of it, 

 comes forward to make another offer. ' 6/. 1 5 s. ? ' 



Hood (loftily) : ' You'd best go home. I've told you seven's 

 the lowest.' 



Young man rushes to horse's head, and in his indignation 

 drags it forward so violently that the unsuspecting young woman 

 on the seat nearly falls backwards out of the cart. Then once 

 more reason comes to his aid and he returns. 



Here I left the pair confabulating. When I passed that way 

 again, ten minutes afterwards, Hood informed me that he had 

 parted with the pigs for y/., 'all but half-a-crown,' which, he added, 

 was, in his opinion, a good deal more than their value. But that 

 was a post factum view. Pigs, like books, have their fate. These 

 were a lucky lot. There were eleven of them in the family, of 

 which five were sold a good while back at i/. apiece. Five more 

 have gone to-day for 6/. ijs. 6d. the parcel, and one, valued at 



