144 IDLEHURST : 



particular hand possibly it is by his kindness that 

 Walder has not been already turned off; to the 

 steward or agent David Walder is nothing more than 

 an item on the pay-sheet ; the owner, Mr. Newcome, 

 if he ever looks over the farms on a Saturday after- 

 noon, knows less of his labourers than he does of his 

 crops. 



Sacketts is in Tyefold parish, and out of the range 

 of our watchful Rector. The Vicar of Tyefold is of 

 a blameless conversation and, I believe, is the first 

 authority in the Diocese upon Low-Side Windows. 

 Walder has never seen him to speak to : he reckons 

 he's most likely been to his place and found him 

 out ; as he would any time between six and nine 

 of the day at this time of year. I suggest that the 

 Vicar might speak to Mr. Newcome, and get him 

 put to lighter work. He turns to me with something 

 like terror in his watery eyes ; anything but that ! 

 His one object in life is to show that he can still 

 do a full day's work ; for this he strains to equal the 

 younger men, and is ready at a hint for the hardest 

 jobs. If once he be thought to be past work, they 

 will turn him off; and that is the final catastrophe: 

 these old people decline to take the workhouse into 

 consideration. I contrived to reassure him that 

 nothing should be done to jeopardise his wages ; and 



