194 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



servants and the class from which they are supplied. 

 ' Gawd help the pore missis as gets hold of you ! ' ex- 

 claimed a cottage woman to her daughter, whose goings 

 on had not been as they should be : ' God help the poor 

 mistress who has to put up with you ! ' A remark that 

 would be most emphatically echoed by many a farmer's 

 wife and country resident. ' Doan't you stop if her hol- 

 lers at 'ee/ said another cottage mother to her girl, just 

 departing for service that is, don't stop if you don't like 

 it ; don't stop if your mistress finds the least fault. ' Come 

 along home if you don't like it.' Home to what? In this 

 instance it was a most wretched hovel, literally built in 

 a ditch ; no convenience, no sanitation ; and the father a 

 drunkard, who scarcely brought enough money indoors 

 to supply bread. 



You would imagine that a mother in such a position 

 would impress upon her children the necessity of endea- 

 vouring to do something. For the sake of that spirit of 

 independence in which they seem to take so much pride, 

 one would suppose they would desire to see their chil- 

 dren able to support themselves. But it is just the 

 reverse ; the poorer folk are, the less they seem to care 

 to try to do something. ' You come home if you don't 

 like it ; ' and stay about the hovel in slatternly idle- 

 ness, tails bedraggled and torn, thin boots out at the toes 

 and down at the heels, half starved on potatoes and weak 

 tea stay till you fall into disgrace, and lose the only 

 thing you possess in the world your birthright, your 

 character. Strange advice it was for a mother to give. 



Nor is the feeling confined to the slatternly section, 

 but often exhibited by very respectable cottagers indeed. 



' My mother never would go out to service she 

 wouldn't go,' said a servant to her mistress, one day talk- 

 ing confidentially. 



