32 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



'You be very welcome, me dear/ said the hostess, 

 to which the old man added, ' 'Ess sure we be glad 

 to zee 'ee, and you may have the vish, if you can catch 

 em. 



While thanking him I remarked, 'What a lovely 

 valley, and how prosperous things look everywhere !' 



' 'Ess, fay, it be a blessed time ; there be food for 

 man and beast in plenty, thank God. May zich 

 tim.es last, for it was not always zo. There may 

 come another Boney or, what is wuss, the harvest 

 fail and whate go to 126 shillings, which was its price 

 in the yur 1812, with men's wages tenpence a day.' 



'What a ^^dcked wage to pay with wheat so high.' 



The old man smiled pityingly at my remark and 

 replied, 'We had no whate to zell. The har^'est failed 

 us. It sprouted avore 'twas cut, and lay about in heaps 

 like dung avore 'twas carried. The bread it made was 

 black. Have j-ou ever tasted bread made from rotting 

 whate?' he asked of m^e, and, in answer, I said, — 



'I had a taste of bread made from sprouted rakings 

 once, but I did not attempt to swallow it.' 



'Lucky lad to have had a choice in zich a m.atter. 

 Well 1 ours v/as black, and so near like zoup that we 

 had to ate it with a spoon. 'Twas sticky and difficult 

 to zwaller, yet women and children would come and 

 cry vor't.' 



'Oh 1 how awful ! What did you do?' Nell asked. 



'Amongst other things, me dear, we got thin ahd 

 praved that the winter m.ight be short and the next 

 har\^est plentiful. 'Twas tiresome waiting, but the 

 promise came that we should get all we axed, for 

 the ripe and ripening com was splendid. Then it 

 rained and rained day after day until all was dung 

 again and the taters rotted in the ground. There was 

 nothing left but turnips. As good men as ever lived 

 and worked, half-starved, got out of hand, stole and 

 burned; som.e of um went mad and wake women and 

 children died.' 



