68 AN AMERICAN FARMER IX ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER IX. 



A Railway Ride Second Class Inconvenient Arrangements First 

 Walk in the Country England itself A Rural Landscape Hedges 

 Approach to a Hamlet The Old Ale-house and the Old John Bull 

 A Talk with Country People Notions of America Free Trade The 

 Yew Tree The Old Rural Church and Graveyard A Park Gate A 

 Model Fanner The Old Village Inn A Model Kitchen A Model 

 Landlady. 



T1TE were very tired when we again reached the baker's. After 

 passenger-life at sea, a man's legs need to be brought into 

 active service somewhat gradually. As we had spent more time 

 than we had meant to at Birkenhead, we determined to rest our- 

 selves for a few minutes, and get a start of a few miles into the 

 country by the railroad. A seat, however, on the hard board 

 benches of an English second-class rail-carriage, crowded, and 

 your feet cramped under you, does not remove fatigue very 

 rapidly. 



A heavy cloud darkened the landscape, and as we emerged in 

 a few moments from the dark tunnel, whirling out of town, big 

 drops of rain came slanting in upon us. A lady coughed, and 

 we closed the window. Soon the road ran through a deep cut- 

 ting, with only occasionally such depressions of its green-sodded 

 bank, that we could, through the dusty glass, get glimpses of the 

 country. In successive gleams : 



