228 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



work. Here would follow the names of various farms 

 in the parishes of Selborne, Newton Valence, and Oak- 

 hanger, where she had worked, mostly in the fields; 

 and of the farmers, long dead and gone most of them, 

 who had employed her. All her life she had worked 

 hard, struggling to live. When people complained of 

 hard times now, of the little that was paid them for 

 their work, she and her husband remembered what 

 it was thirty and forty and fifty years ago, and they 

 wondered what people really wanted. Cheap food, 

 cheap clothing, cheap education for the children 

 everything was cheap now, and the pay more. And 

 she had had so many children to bring up ten; and 

 seven of them were married, and were now having so 

 many children of their own that she could hardly keep 

 count of them. 



It was idle to listen; and at last, in desperation, I 

 would jump up and rush out, for the wind was calling 

 in the pines, and the birds were calling, and what they 

 had to tell was just then of more interest than any 

 human story. 



Not far from my cottage there was a hill, from the 

 summit of which the whole area of the forest was 

 visible, and the country all round for many leagues 

 beyond it. I did not like this hill, and refused to 

 pay it a second visit. The extent of country it re- 

 vealed made the forest appear too small; it spoilt the 

 illusion of a practically endless wilderness, where I 

 could stroll about all day and see no cultivated spot, 



