FIRST YEARS OF SUCCESS. 121 



field remembers how the hoots were clogged 

 with the adhesive clay, and how the continuous 

 ridges and furrows impeded progress. These 

 women have to stoop and gather up the white 

 couch-roots, and the other weeds, and place 

 them in heaps to be burnt. The spring is not 

 always soft and balmy. There comes one 

 lovely day, when the bright sunlight en- 

 courages the buds and peeping leaves to 

 push out, and then follows a week or more 

 of the harsh biting east wind. The arable 

 field is generally devoid of hedges or trees to 

 break the force of the weather, and the couch- 

 pickers have to withstand its cutting rush in 

 the open. . . . 



" The cold clods of earth numb the fingers 

 as they search for the roots and weeds. The 

 damp clay chills the feet through thick-nailed 

 boots, and the back grows stiff with stooping. 

 If the poor woman suffers from the rheumatism 

 so common among the labouring class, such a 

 day as this will make every bone in her body 

 ache. When at last four o'clock comes, she 

 has to walk a mile or two miles to her cottage 

 and prepare her husband's supper. In hilly 



