A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 107 



says, 'You come here!' but I kep' on a standin' and 

 wouldn't go ; but at last I saw he was a-comin' to 

 me, so I went ; an' he says, ' Take my hand,' he says ; 

 so I took it ; and he says, ' If you don't drive better 

 I'll kill you.* Next time we stopped, he says, ' You'd 

 better say your prayers ; ' so I said * Our Father ' out 

 there in the field. I was frightened, I can tell you. 

 Next time I took hold of the horse's head all the 

 way, because I really thought he'd kill me. He 

 lost his place after that, not over me, but about 

 beatin' another boy. Ay, they was rougher then 

 than they are now. That was when the Horsham 

 Gang went on. There was a lot of 'em ; they broke 

 into houses, but never hurt nobody. Police ? There 

 wasn't any then, but only beadles and constables. 

 At last the gentry got a man to go in with 'em ; and 

 they didn't take to him, not at first. After a bit 

 they did, and he let on them, and they was taken, 

 one here and another there. One was hung and 

 the others transported. But the man who did it, 

 he had to fly the country." 



The clatter and clink of the horses being brought 

 round to the yard made old Avery hobble to the 

 door to inspect them ; and when he came back to his 

 chair, he had something to say about the disappear- 

 ance of oxen for the plough. Here and there they 



