I 4 6 SMALL DEER OUR RODENTS 
1 No, some bubble-mice I am looking out for.' 
1 Well, they ain't gone yet ; you go up the meadow, 
and if ye looks over the foot-bridge where the old 
master tumbled in that there day, if ye looks over 
deedy (carefully) like, you'll see some on 'em. 
' Massy sakes ! do ye 'member that there time ? 
It was a most 'menjous wet and desprit hayin' time,' 
an' the crap so thick too. Day arter day we hed 
some on it ready fur cartin', an' then 'twould come 
down agin as ef it hadn't rained for months ; a real 
losin' game it was, so much on it lay fairly rotten in 
the water-meadows. Master didn't say one word 
a-grumblin' on it to me, but we worked as hard as iver 
we could ; he was a rum 'un, desprit self-willed an' 
high-handed. One arternoon it rained wuss than ever, 
an' he looks roun' dreadful, as ef he'd kill the fust 
thing in his way, and he hollers out, " Shut in, go to 
the stables, an' leave the lot on it to rot ! " I was just 
behind him, an' I sees him go to one o' the haycocks, 
shove his hand into the middle, pull out a bit an' put 
it in his pocket. Then he hollers out, " I will have 
one bit of dry hay out of this crop ; if I don't I'm 
damned ! " An' then he rushed on to the bridge. His 
foot slipped, an' he went head fust into the sheep- 
dippin' hole, right under. I dunno' what a divil looks 
like, I niver see one ; but I should reckin he'd look 
