HARVEST AND GLEANING TIME 169 



The scattered houses of one secluded hamlet 

 it was not large enough to call a village, 

 even by courtesy on which I dropped from 

 some high woods above it, was built on the 

 edge of what had once been a wet moss 

 sprinkled with rush clumps. The main road 

 ran on one side of it, four-armed sign-posts 

 were numerous at the cross-roads, and at the 

 end of the still moist waste was a fair-sized 

 pond. Much has been written about the beauty 

 and the extreme healthiness of the country, but 

 a place may be very beautiful without being 

 particularly healthy. One would not care to 

 live near that waste, with the polluted stream 

 running through it. But in this particular 

 hamlet I wished to see the old church, because 

 a man I met told me that there was a "werry 

 old church stuck in a wood t'other end o' the 

 willage," if I was curious on "sich things"; 

 and as I had had about enough for one day's 

 tramping, I asked him the distance to " t'other 

 end," as he termed it. " Oh, well, let's see. 

 Well, 'tis within a short half-mile, I reckins." 



It proved a very long mile ; and when the 

 place was reached, the entrance-gates, that led 

 to the church through a path between trees, 

 were locked. The church could not be seen, 



