ONE OF THE NEW VOTERS. 109 



was something like a sunstroke, but fortunately a 

 slight attack ; on the third day he resumed his place. 

 Continued labour in the sun, little food and much 

 drink, stomach derangement, in short, accounted for 

 his illness. Though he resumed his place and worked 

 on, he was not so well afterwards ; the work was more 

 of an effort to him, and his face lost its fulness, and 

 became drawn and pointed. Still he laboured, and 

 would not miss an hour, for harvest was coming to 

 an end, and the extra wages would soon cease. For 

 the first week or so of haymaking or reaping the men 

 usually get drunk, delighted with the prospect before 

 them, then they settle down fairly well. Towards the 

 end they struggle hard to recover lost time and the 

 money spent in ale. 



As the last week approached, Koger went up into 

 the village and ordered the shoemaker to make him a 

 good pair of boots. He paid partly for them then, and 

 the rest next pay-day. This was a tremendous effort. 

 The labourer usually pays a shilling at a time, but 

 Eoger mistrusted himself. Harvest was practically 

 over, and after all the labour and the long hours, the 

 exposure to the sun and the rude lodging, he found 

 he should scarcely have thirty shillings. With the 

 utmost ordinary care he could nave saved a good lump 

 of money. He was a single man, and his actual keep 

 cost but little. Many married labourers, who had been 

 forced by hard necessity to economy, contrived to put 

 by enough to buy clothes for their families. The 

 single man, with every advantage, hardly had thirty 

 shillings, and even then it showed extraordinary 

 prudence on his part to go and purchase a pair of 



