WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 129 



his leathern pads for the knees that he may be able to 

 bear lengthened contact against the wooden rungs 

 of the ladder, his little club to drive in the stakes, his 

 shears to snip off the edges of the straw round the 

 eaves, his iron needle of gigantic size with which to 

 pass the tar cord through when thatching a shed, and 

 his small sharp billhook to split out his thatching 

 stakes. These are of willow, cut from the pollard 

 trees by the brook, and he sits on a stool in the shed 

 and splits them into three or four with the greatest 

 dexterity, giving his billhook a twist this way and 

 then that, and so guiding the split in the direction 

 required. Then holding it across his knee, he cuts 

 the point with a couple of blows and casts the finished 

 stake aside upon the heap. 



A man of no little consequence is the thatcher, the 

 most important, perhaps, of the hamlet craftsmen. He 

 ornaments the wheat ricks with curious twisted tufts 

 of straw, standing up not unlike the fantastic ways 

 in which savages are represented doing their hair. 

 But he does not put the thatch on the wheat half so 

 substantially as formerly, because now only a few 

 remain the winter the thatch is often hardly on 

 before it is off again for the thrashing-machine for the 

 " sheening," as they call it. On the hayricks, which 

 stand longer, he puts better work, especially on the 

 southern and western sides or angles, binding it down 

 with a crosswork of bonds to prevent the gales which 

 blow from those quarters unroofing the rick. 



It is said to be an ill wind that blows nobody any 



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