124 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



he knew best. He told me that he was paid twelve 

 and sixpence a week, and had no prospect of a rise, 

 as the farmers in that part had made a firm stand 

 against the high wages (in some cases amounting to 

 eighteen shillings) which were being paid at other 

 points. I was tempted as an experiment to speak 

 slightingly of the shepherd's homely trade. It was 

 all very well in summer, I said, but what about 

 winter, when the hills were all white with snow; 

 when the wind blew so strong that a man could 

 not walk against or face it ; when it was wet all 

 day, and when all nature was drowned in a dense 

 fog, and you cannot see a sheep twenty yards off? 

 "We are accustomed to all weathers," he replied. 

 "We do not mind the wet and cold — we don't feel 

 it." I persisted that he earned too little, that shep- 

 herding was not good enough for him. He said that 

 his father had been a shepherd all his life, and was 

 now old and becoming infirm ; that he (the son) lived 

 in the same cottage, and at odd times helped the old 

 man with his flock, and was able to do a good many 

 little things for him which he could not very well do 

 for himself, and would not be able to pay a stranger 

 to do them. That, I said, was all right and proper ; 

 but his father being infirm would not be able to 

 follow a flock many years longer on the hills, and 

 when the old man's shepherding days were over the 

 son would be free. Besides, I added, a young man 

 wants a wife — how could he marry on twelve and 



