250 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



They left together and for some time he almost kept 

 the two by begging, his lack of an arm ensuring his 

 success. But he was not altogether to his companion's 

 taste, nevertheless. He would stop and smoke a pipe and 

 admire the view when he was miles from anywhere and 

 their object was to reach a town and find enough money 

 to pay for lodgings. He would stand by a hedge, content 

 for an hour to disentangle the bryony strands that were 

 in danger of straying to the road, and to restore them to 

 the hazel and thorn where their fellows ramped. He was 

 willing to be foster-father to half the helpless fledglings 

 that he found on the roadside. Sleeping one night in a 

 barn he could not be persuaded to leave until he had 

 decided whether it was better to kill a spider who had a 

 great appetite for flies or to leave it to Fate. Several he 

 rescued from the web and then out of pity for the spider 

 brought it flies already dead; but finding that these were 

 not to its taste he left the difficulty unsolved and went 

 sadly on his way. Almost equal to his pitifulness was his 

 dislike of work and his moral cowardice. Nothing could 

 persuade him to do any work, and such a coward was he 

 that if he failed at the first house where he offered his 

 laces for sale he would not try again in that village or 

 town. Yet he did not scruple to steal even with a hint 

 of physical violence if he needed anything which chance 

 presented to him in another man's possession : but he stole 

 only necessaries, having none of the acquisitiveness which 

 is more common in their victims than in thieves. Few 

 men use leisure as well as he; perhaps no man was ever 

 idle with less harm to his fellows. The rich could have 

 learned many lessons at his feet : they must always be 

 shooting or driving furiously or meddling with politics 



