CHAPTER V 



A Woman's successful Plotting A prosperous Farm and its 

 happy Occupants I steal away in the grey Dawn and get a 

 Fish for Breakfast 



COUNTRY folk cannot stand the noise, dust and 

 smells, to say nothing of the worries, of a city, 

 without hungering now and then to tread the 

 meadow grass and sniff the scents that come from 

 it. That wife of mine had much conceit of her 

 knowledge of every symptom that foretold my 

 coming need of country air ; a word pitched too 

 high and she favoured me with a look much like 

 my mother's when she viewed a protruding tongue 

 and prescribed salts and senna. The wife's pre- 

 scription for this out-of-sorts aided and abetted me 

 in filching days from duty. Indeed I had to go, 

 for, when her persuasion failed it seldom did she 

 would plead fatigue, and become so pale, in the 

 briefest time, that for her sake we stole off 

 together. 



There can be no doubt that whatever portion of 

 my economy it may be that gives way to fag the 

 remedy for it is with every tree and bush that 

 breathes pure air, for I am no sooner with them 

 than I feel myself on the upgrade. I was very 

 queer, so Nell said, and those of my fellow-men 

 I had to meet were very tiresome and nothing less 

 than all their own way would do for them. Every- 



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