OTHER " PRIVILEGES." 255 



" dealers " waiting to receive the fruit as it was brought 

 to them by the berry pickers. During the season 

 children were able, if energetic, to make as much as 

 eight pence and a shilling a day their " wages " for 

 this work nearly rivalling the munificent pay of their 

 fathers and brothers on the farms. 



Here, again, after this bright little picture of childish 

 earnings the silver lining of a cloudy existence came 

 the darker side. The "weather" that uncertain 

 quantity was not always good : and persistent " rainy 

 days " prevented the ingathering. Then, again, for worts 

 and cranberries there are bad seasons as for all kinds 

 of fruit seasons of great scarcity, during which the 

 expected copper or silver harvest was impossible for the 

 little ones. 



Another wild fruit is available for an industry, the 

 well-known blackberry with its beautiful flavour and 

 its adaptability for " pies," especially when its mellow 

 though rich flavour is mingled with the sourer flavour of 

 the apple, and for "jam" and blackberry jelly, so appetis- 

 ing when eaten with bread and butter for tea or supper ; 

 or even for the poor labourer's dinner in the absence 

 of animal food, so scarce a commodity, and so con- 

 spicuous by its absence from the majority of peasants' 

 tables. Children in the rural districts are the great 

 blackberry pickers, and although the fruit is sold very 

 cheaply, the money obtained provides a welcome addition 

 to eke out poor earnings : and to the extent to which it 

 is gathered from farmers' hedges, may perhaps be 

 reckoned as a " privilege." 



