WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 211 



work, the death-tick is sure to be heard in the silence 

 of the night : even now the old folk listen with a 

 lingering dread. Give the woodwork a smart tap, 

 and the insect stops a few moments ; but it rapidly 

 gets accustomed to such taps, and after a few ceases 

 to take notice of them. This manner of building 

 houses with great beams visibly supporting the ceiling, 

 passing across the room underneath it, had one ad- 

 vantage. On a rainy day the children could go into 

 the garrets or the cheese-loft and there form a swing, 

 attaching the ropes to the hooks in the beam across 

 the ceiling. 



The brewhouse, humble though its object may be, 

 is not without its claim to admiration. It is open from 

 the floor to the rafters of the roof ; and that roof in its 

 pitch, the craft of the woodwork, the dull polish of 

 the old oak, has an interest far surpassing the dead, 

 staring level of flat lath and plaster. Noble workman- 

 ship in wood may be found, too, in some of the ancient 

 barns ; sometimes the beams are of black oak, in 

 others of chestnut. 



In these modern days men have lost the pleasures 

 of the orchard ; yet an old-fashioned orchard is the 

 most delicious of places wherein to idle away the 

 afternoon of a hazy autumn day, when the sun seems 

 to shine with a soft, slumberous warmth without glare, 

 as if the rays came through an aerial spider's web 

 spun across the sky, letting all the beauty but not the 

 heat slip through its invisible meshes. There is a 

 shadowy coolness in the recesses under the trees. 



