WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



One strangely reserved character, a master of 

 all woodcraft in the opinion of his comrades, whose 

 goodwill I had tried to gain in order that we 

 might have a sociable chat together but, as I 

 thought, to no purpose, said one day as I was 

 leaving the works, " You strolls about middlin' 

 o' nights like, don't ye ? If you likes to come 

 along o' me some night to my shanty, 'tis a tidy 

 distance off like, you're welcome." I found him 

 to be a keen intelligent man, and from him I 

 learned much of the woodlanders and their ways 

 of thinking, of woodcraft, and of all things living 

 under green leaves. It could only be expected 

 that those who from one generation to another 

 have lived in the very centre of natural life should 

 be as observant of all Nature's various aspects as 

 the wild creatures around them ; and they have 

 also their own theories about natural phenomena 

 theories which very frequently proved to be im- 

 portant facts. Their lives being spent in the open 

 air, summer and winter, they have to observe all 

 weather-signs. The old people used to be so 

 proficient in this that many of the farmers, such 

 as they were at the time I allude to, would take 



