THE BED A MARK OF CONDITION. 153 



flowers, vegetables, and green crops, noticed 

 by you as a defect, that of the two first, I 

 apprehend, is characteristic of the absolute 

 pastoral life ; that of the last of the same of 

 a want of the goodly modern union of the 

 pastoral and agricultural, which is more or 

 less a desideratum throughout the dale district, 

 and, I may say, the Lake District likewise. 



AMICUS. Within the inner room is an inner, 

 a bedroom. The door was open, and I looked 

 into it. It too was a pattern of neatness and 

 order, as if for show rather than use. 



PISCATOK. That is the bedroom of the master 

 and mistress, and comparing it with the servants' 

 bedrooms, clean and decent as they are, marks 

 well the difference of rank. The bed, I believe, 

 is one of the best characteristics of condition, at 

 least in all the lower grades of society. 



AMICUS. I have been looking for books, 

 somewhat curious to know the literature of the 

 dales; but the only book I have found has 

 been an almanac and of the present year. 



PISCATOR. This too must surprise you; in 

 truth, the dales folk are not very much of a 

 reading people ; they are too much occupied ; 

 and the men are so much abroad as to have 



