AN OLD-STYLE FARM 



nice lambs they were; far better than the half 

 I find in the markets to-day. Nothing puts 

 sweeter and more delicate flesh upon young 

 lambs than that luxuriant growth of herbage 

 which springs from freshly cleared high-lying 

 wood-lands. In piquancy and richness, it is 

 as much beyond the lambs of stall-fed sheep, 

 as the racy mutton of the Dartmoors is beyond 

 the turnip-fatted wethers of the downs of 

 Hampshire. And yet these lambs were deliv- 

 ered to the butcher at an ignoble price; I 

 think a dollar and a half a head was all that 

 could be secured for animals which in the 

 city would bring to-day nearly five dollars. 

 The wool was bought up by speculators in 

 that time, and the speculators were not ex- 

 travagant. I remember very well driving ofE 

 upon a summer's afternoon, mounted upon 

 twelve great sacks of fleeces, and being rather 

 proud of my receipts, at the rate of twenty- 

 eight cents per pound. (The same wool 

 would have brought two years since eighty 

 cents per pound.) 



After we disposed of the butter and the 



the crow to such game. I think I have never felt more 

 murderously inclined than when I have seen upon a 

 bleak day of April one of these black harpies perched 

 upon the head of its faintly struggling victim, and delib- 

 erately plucking away the eyes from the socket. 



19 



