COTTAGE IDEAS. 197 



for that work.' She considered it quite a hardship that 

 they were not paid for taking a present. Cottage people 

 do look at things in such a curious crooked light ! A 

 mother grumbled because the vicar had not been to see 

 her child, who was ill. Now, she was not a church-goer, 

 and cared nothing for the Church or its doctrines that 

 was not it ; she grumbled so terribly because ' it was his 

 place to come.' 



A lady went to live in a village for health's sake, 

 and having heard so much of the poverty of the farmer's 

 man, and how badly his family were off, thought that she 

 should find plenty who would be glad to pick up extra 

 shillings by doing little things for her. First she wanted 

 a stout boy to help to draw her Bath chair, while the 

 footman pushed behind, it being a hilly country. Instead 

 of having to choose between half a dozen applicants, as 

 she expected, the difficulty was to discover anybody 

 who would even take such a job into consideration. 

 The lads did not care about it ; their fathers did not care 

 about it ; and their mothers did not want them to do it. 

 At one cottage there were three lads at home doing 

 nothing ; but the mother thought they were too delicate 

 for such work. In the end a boy was found, but not 

 for some time. Nobody was eager for any extra shilling 

 to be earned in that way. The next thing was some- 

 body to fetch a yoke or two of spring water daily. This 

 man did not care for it, and the other did not care for 

 it ; and even one who had a small piece of ground, and 

 kept a donkey and water-butt on wheels for the very 

 purpose, shook his head. He always fetched water for 

 folk in the summer when it was dry, never fetched none 

 at that time of year he could not do it. After a time 

 a small shopkeeper managed the yoke'of water from the 

 spring for her his boy could carry it ; the labourer's 



