JANUAR Y 79 



is furnished with larger pipes. From this lead ' eyes ' open into 

 the ditch wherever may be convenient. 



To contemplate the spectacle of two men commencing to drain 

 a great expanse of six or eight acres of stiff clay land on some dull 

 and cheerless day in January is to understand the splendid 

 patience of developed man, that gift by which he has been able to 

 lift himself from the level of the savage, or as some believe 

 (although I am not one of them) from the moral and physical status 

 of the gorilla. The task looks so vast in the miserable grey light ; 

 it seems almost impossible, indeed, that two men should find the 

 strength to dig out all those long lines of trenches, or at least that 

 they should have the spirit to attempt it. Yet if you speak to 

 them you will find that they are not in the least depressed at the 

 prospect, in fact the only thing which troubles them is the fear 

 lest frost or heavy snow should force them to pause in their 

 monotonous labour. Go away, and return in about ten weeks' 

 time, and, if the weather has kept open, probably you will find 

 them engaged in finishing the last cut, with dozens of long 

 rough furrows on the hither side of them, each of which shows a 

 completed drain. 



The strange part of the thing is that such toilers betray not 

 the least delight at the termination of their long labour. I have 

 come to the conclusion that the agricultural labourer cares little 

 for change or variety in his work ; that if he were paid what he 

 considered a satisfactory wage he would be content to go on till 

 he grew old digging drains in the same flat clay field through the 

 same miserable January weather. Perhaps this is because so little 

 change and variety come his way, poor fellow ! except that of the 

 mutable face of Nature, whereof, so far as one can discover, very 

 often he takes but small account. 



January 15. The mild, windless weather continues, bringing 

 with it a great deal of influenza and other sickness. It is, how- 

 ever, a splendid open time for farmers ; thus, to-day, at a season 

 of the year when very often everything is frost-bound, I have three 



