A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 37 



lads on the parish was put out to farmin' when they 

 was ten or eleven. They had a meetin' in the evenin' 

 in the long room at the Greyhound, at Martinmas, 

 and at Lady Day : all the lads 'ud be there, and 

 the farmers, and the auctioneer. They'd ask a lad, 

 1 What can you do ? ' and he'd say, ' I can drive a 

 plough, and hedge, and cut wood, or go with a team 

 o' bullocks ; ' and then the auctioneer he'd say, 

 ' Fifty shillin's ! ' and one farmer he'd say, ' Three 

 pound ; ' and so they'd go up to five pound or so, 

 and he'd be hired for the half year, and be right off 

 the work'us. If he took a job afore that, the parish 

 took all the money as he earned, and found him in 

 clothes. And they used to put out pigs to be fatted 

 in the parish ; there was one old Denman had, as 

 used to be the blacksmith ; I never see sech a hog 

 as that were. Ah, it was good times then ! 



"And it's good times for some on 'em now," he 

 went on, " but not for them as is on the land. I 

 reckon when I'm about again, I can do as good 

 a day's job as the young chaps ; but it's all cuttin' 

 off here, and puttin' down there, and there's naun 

 left for such as I be. Well, I shan't be here 

 much longer ; but the young 'uns won't be better 

 off nor what we was, nor so well, for all their chat. 

 Muster Lewknor, he was a-sayin' as how things 



