224 ANCIENT SUSSEX GAME OF STOOLBALL 



more easily than the town-dweller what changes 

 are likely to take place. I believe that quick 

 observation and speedy decision of action are 

 inherited, for I have often noticed that the chil- 

 dren of sailors are particularly gifted, guessing 

 accurately when wind, rain, or snow are coming, 

 and ready to seize accordingly the right oppor- 

 tunity for carrying out special work. 



This year, ever since March, whenever the wind 

 blew vigorously it came from the east, bearing 

 with it insect pests and extracting from the ground 

 that moisture so essential to seeds and plants. 



They were not all gardeners who watched day 

 and night to see whence it came, for many thought 

 of the gas fumes used by Germans and wondered 

 whether they would be wafted towards enemies 

 or friends in Flanders. As we drew nearer to that 

 day when " the sun crosses the Line," those who 

 believe in the old tradition of the wind then veer- 

 ing to another position became more anxious, 

 more speculative than usual. 



I stopped to speak to an old labourer who was 

 bending over his hoe as he fetched out with an 

 angry jerk of his arm unruly thistles that had, to 

 annoy him, placed themselves, thickly grouped, 

 in a corner of the field. He was delighted to in- 

 terrupt his backaching job for a moment and tell 

 me how, as a child, he remembered his grand- 

 mother's firm belief in the old saying. Exactly 

 at the moment when this change of wind might be 

 expected she would slowly walk to the top of a 

 small mound in the garden at the back of her 

 house, and with her hand held so as to shade her 



