84 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



left London, and walked all day and all night until I 

 reached the sea. There I bathed and ate a hearty meal, 

 and walking along the cliffs till I came to a small farm- 

 house I engaged a bedroom, and there I slept and thought 

 and slept undisturbed for twenty-four hours. I was free. 

 I was free to dream myself no longer one of the mob- 

 led mob. With care my money would last until mid- 

 summer, even if I did no work. 



" It was a warm, wet May, and by the end of the 

 month there was a plentiful crop of weeds, and I had no 

 difficulty in getting work at hoeing. Strawberry picking 

 and cherry picking followed. I was very slow and 

 earned little, but it was now warm enough to sleep out, 

 and I earned my food. By the end of July, as I liked 

 the work, I was as useful with my hayrake as any of the 

 women and better than most of the odd hands. I wore 

 my fingers raw at tying up barley and oats and, later on, 

 at feeding the threshing machine. But before the end of 

 October the weather drove me back to London, with ten 

 shillings in my pocket. 



" I put on my new clothes and got as good a berth as 

 my first one, and in the hope of another spring and 

 summer out of doors I passed the winter cheerfully. To 

 save more money I went to bed as soon as I got back 

 to my lodgings, and read myself to sleep. 



" In May a spell of fine weather drove me to give 

 notice again, and I walked as far as Maidstone the first 

 day. My second summer was like my first. I was 

 already known at half-a-dozen farms. When they could 

 not give me work at once they gave me leave to fish in 

 the three or four ponds to be found on all the farms 



