FIELD WORDS AND WAYS. 189 



usually called dog-irons on the hearth are called brand- 

 irons, having to support the brand or burning log. 

 Where every one keeps fowls the servant girls are com- 

 monly asked if they can cram a chicken, if they under- 

 stand how to fatten it by filling its crop artificially. 

 ' Sure,' pronounced with great emphasis on the ' su," like 

 the ' shure ' of the Irish, comes out at every sentence. ' I 

 shan't do it all, sure ; ' and if any one is giving a narra- 

 tion, the polite listener has to throw in a deep ' sure ' of 

 assent at every pause. ' Cluttered up ' means in a litter, 

 surrounded with too many things to do at once. Of a 

 little girl they said she was pretty, but she had bolted ' 

 eyes ; a portrait was a good one, but ' his eyes bolt so, 1 

 meaning thereby full, staring eyes, that seem to start out 

 of the head. A drunken man, says the poor wife, is not 

 worth a hatful of crab apples. The boys go hoop- 

 driving, never bowling. If in any difficulty they say, 

 ' I hope to match it out to the end of the week,' to make 

 the provisions last, or fit the work in. Most difficult of all 

 to express is the way they say yes and no. It is neither 

 yes nor no, nor yea nor nay, but a cross between it 

 somehow. To say yes they shut their lips and then 

 open them as if gasping for breath and emit a sort of 

 ' yath ' without the ' th,' more like ' yeah,' and better still 

 if to get the closing of the lips you say ' cm ' first ' em- 

 yeah.' The no is ' nah ' with a sort of jerk on the h ; 

 ' na-h.' This yeah and nah is most irritating to fresh 

 ears ; you do not seem to know if your servant has 

 taken any notice of what you said, or is making a mouth 

 at you in derision. 



The farmers are always complaining that the men 

 crawl through their work and put no energy into any- 

 thing, just as if they were afraid to use their hands. 

 More particularly, if there is any little extra thing to be 



