WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



their opinions unhesitatingly when the crops were 

 about. 



In all the years I have known them many now 

 I never knew one who did not, the first thing 

 in the morning and the last thing at night, give 

 his opinion about the weather. Being so much 

 alone for their employment as a rule was, from 

 the very nature of it, to a certain extent solitary 

 they pondered over matters, and worked them 

 out in their own way. In calm or in storm, in 

 sunshine or darkness, they found matters to pon- 

 der over deeply. No matter how hard their work 

 was, they were always in close touch with the 

 object under consideration. Their religious feel- 

 ings were naturally strong ones ; for they believed 

 literally in all they read in their Bibles, and acted 

 on that belief, each one according to his or her 

 light. Theirs was and it is now in some parts 

 that I still visit a stern puritanical faith, one 

 that was upheld against all new-comers unflinch- 

 ingly. Obedience to parents, one of the chief 

 features in it, was carried to such a pitch as to 

 become almost tyranny. 



I was able to associate closely with these people, 



