180 IDLEHURST : 



about now ! " They 'spec's the land to grow it all of 

 itself like never clean it proper nor naun. When I 

 was a boy they'd be movin' a field a week at a time, 

 cleanin' and burnin' an' breakin' it up. An' you 

 never see them turnrice ploughs now that was 

 ploughin' ; now they just tetches the top with two 

 'orses. And these .'ere machines well, you look at 

 it ! When I was a boy, the farmers they was farmers 

 then why, there'd be twenty times as much wheat 

 growed in the perrish as there is now. The farmers 

 they alias corned to Church o' Sunday in white frocks, 

 and tall hats, and leggin's ; and after Church they'd all 

 talk in the churchyard, and show their corn an' that ; 

 and afterwards they'd have a good booze at the Grey- 

 hound. Sims to me as how the farmin' begun to go 

 out just when the machines and all that lot come in ; 

 and look at it now ! Four acres o' wheat and seven 

 o' oats all they got on the Tanyard, that used to be 

 the best in all Arn'ton." 



He sat himself down in the hedge bottom over 

 against me, in the wonted rheumatic attitude, hand 

 on hip ; and evidently proposed to let the reapers 

 wait for their bottle. 



" How be your taters, Sir?" he asked. 



"Middling," I answered; "not much size, but 

 plenty to a root, and no blight yet." 



