214 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



piece of meat was set to roasting before the fire on the old turn- 

 spit, and we were left alone to dry ourselves. Soon we noticed 

 that one end of the spit with the meat was being raised, and we 

 attempted in vain to readjust it. It continued to rise, and I tried 

 to disconnect the chain by which it was turned, and which was 

 now drawing it up the chimney ; I could not, and still it rose. I 

 clung to it, and hallooed for assistance. In rushed the landlady, 

 three maids, and a man-servant, and I yielded the spit to them; but 

 the power was too strong their united weight could not long de- 

 tain it ; up it rose rose rose, till the prettiest maid stood first on 

 tiptoe, and then began to scream ; then the landlady, disengaging 

 the meat from it, and dropping it hastily on a plate, fell back ex- 

 hausted on one of the oak benches and laughed oh ! ha, ha ! oh ! 

 ha, ha ! ha, ha ! ho, ho ! ha, ha, ha! how the woman did laugh ! 

 As soon as she recovered, she sent the man and the maids up to 

 the machinery, being too much out of breath to go herself; and 

 in a few minutes the chain, which had fouled on the rusty crank 

 at the chimney top, was unwound and the spit lowered to its 

 place, the joint put on and set to turning again, all right. 



While we were eating our dinner, five young men laborers 

 came in for theirs ; most of them ate nothing but bread and 

 cheese, but some had thin slices of bacon cut from the flitch 

 nearest the fire, which they themselves toasted with a fork and 

 ate with bread which they had brought in their pockets, as soon 

 as it was warmed through. All drank two pints of beer, and, 

 after dining, smoked, except one, who took hot rum-and-water. 



It appeared that while three of them preferred to spend their 

 money for beer rather than bacon, none of them chose bacon at 

 the expense of beer. The man who took rum drank two glasses 

 of it, and the others two or more pints of beer ; but no one who 

 took beer took any rum at all, nor did he who took rum take any 

 beer. A similar observation I have frequently made. The 



