RUSTICS. 291 



kindness ; so I tasted it, and tried to enter into conversation with 

 them. I soon found it was impossible ; for I could make nothing 

 of two-thirds of their replies, and I doubted if they could under- 

 stand me much better. So I contented myself with listening, 

 while they continued to talk or mumble with each other. The 

 subjects of their conversation were beer and "the girls:" of the 

 latter topic they said nothing to be repeated ; of the former, they 

 wished the farmers never gave worse drink than that they were 

 now enjoying " it was most good for nothing, some of it, what 

 they gave out/' And one told how he had had to drink so much 

 of it once, it had made him clear sick ; and then another told 

 how, on the other hand, he had made himself sick one day, when 

 somebody wouldn't give him as much beer as he wanted, by 

 taking a draught of cold water. 



When the little maid came in to say that my bed was now 

 " quite ready," and I rose to withdraw from the circle, they all 

 gave a singular jerk forward of their heads and touched their 

 foreheads with their right hand, as a parting salutation. 



" Would you let me take something else down to be dried now, 

 sir, your coat, sir, or any thing the socks, sir ; thank you, sir. 

 Hope you'll sleep well, sir." 



Well, I did sleep. It was nine in the morning when I awoke, 

 and there was a steady roar upon the tiles the rain still con- 

 tinued. I drew the window-curtain, and there was Geoffrey 

 Crayon's picture almost to the life : a sleepy old gray mare 

 " letting it rain ;" a draggle-tailed cock on a smoking dunghill, 

 eyeing with the air of a miserable sick saint the riotous orgies of 

 a company of mad ducks, deep in their favorite liquor ; half a 

 dozen doves huddled moping together on the thatch of the stable 

 a sombre tone over every thing, and rain, rain, rain. 



" Hope you rested well, sir," said the landlord, as I reached the 

 foot of the crooked stairs ; " a dirty day, sir. Have your shoes, 



