THE COUNTRY SUNDAY. 69 



money while they sighed over the slow plough. They 

 must have everything perfect, else they could do 

 nothing ; he could do much with very imperfect 

 materials. He would make a cucumber frame out of 

 a church window, or a church window out of a cucumber 

 frame. One of the residents on the new building estate 

 found his cupboard doors numbered on the panels two, 

 six, eight, in gilt figures inside, and in fact they were 

 made of pew doors which the contractor had got out of 

 some old church he had ransacked and turned topsy- 

 turvy to the order of the vicar. He would have run up 

 a new Salt Lake City cheap, or built a new Rome at five 

 per cent, in a few days. 



Meantime, at the little village, various incidents 

 occurred ; the sternly virtuous cottagers, for one thing, 

 had collected from their scattered homes and held a 

 1 Horn Fair.' Some erring barmaid at the inn, accused 

 of too lavish a use of smiles, too much kindness — most 

 likely a jealous tale only — aroused their righteous ire. 

 With shawm and timbrel and ram's-horn trumpet — ■ 

 i.e. with cow's horns, poker and tongs, and tea-trays — 

 the indignant and high-toned population collected night 

 after night by the tavern, and made such fearful uproar 

 that the poor girl, really quite innocent, had to leave her 

 situation. Nothing could be more charitable, more truly 

 righteous, after the model of the Man who would not 

 even so much as say a harsh word to the woman taken 

 in adultery. One poor man shut up his house and went 

 away with his wife and family, and not being heard of 

 for a little while these backbiters told each other that he 

 had not paid his rent, that his furniture was only on loan, 

 and not a single instalment had been met ; he owed the 

 butcher half a crown, the baker discovered there was one 

 and twopence on his book, the tavern could show a score, 



