DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 33 



we be glad to zee ee and you may have the vish 

 if you can catch 'em." 



While thanking him I remarked : " What a lovely 

 valley and how prosperous things look everywhere ! " 



" 'Ess, fay, it be a blessed time ; there be food for 

 man and beast in plenty, thank God. May zich 

 times last, for it was not always zo. There may 

 come another Boney or, what is wuss, the harvest 

 fail and whate go to 126 shillings, which was its 

 price in the yur 1812, with men's wages tenpence a 

 day." 



"What a wicked wage to pay with wheat so 

 high." 



The old man smiled pityingly at my remark and 

 replied : " We had no whate to zell. The harvest 

 failed us. It sprouted avore 'twas cut and lay 

 about in heaps like dung avore 'twas carried. The 

 bread it made was black. Have you ever tasted 

 bread made from rotting whate ? " he asked of me 

 and, in answer, I said : 



" I had a taste of bread made from sprouted 

 rakings once but I did not attempt to swallow it." 



" Lucky lad to have had a choice in zich a 

 matter. Well ! ours was black and so near like 

 zoup that we had to ate it with a spoon. 'Twas 

 sticky and difficult to zwaller, yet women and 

 children would come and cry vor't." 



"Oh! how awful! What did you do?" Nell 

 asked. 



"Amongst other things, me dear, we got thin 

 and prayed that the winter might be short and the 

 next harvest plentiful. 'Twas tiresome waiting but 

 the promise came that we should get all we axed, 

 for the ripe and ripening corn was splendid. Then 

 c 



