102 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



utes. I knowed one, if not two foxes, layed in this 

 'ere place; and they makes for it over the humps 

 and water. So I tells the huntsman that the one 

 they was after hed trotted off to the alder swamp 

 and layed up there, snug. 



" Then Old Kindey snaps out, ' What do you 

 know about it ? you ain't been there, hev ye, eh ? ' 

 So he turns, and sez he, ' Don't you take no notice 

 o' him,' and the huntsman didn't ; but he called 

 the hounds, and went tu find a fox furder on. That 

 'ere fox may hev all his ducks afore I lets him know 

 on't. I shan't forgit neither, the time I cut his 

 reeds fur him. His pond's full o' jacks ; but he 

 wun't let nobody fish, nor yet ketch 'em hisself. 

 Reg'lar dog-in-the-manger is Old Kindey. Well, 

 when I cut them 'ere reeds, the jacks had worked 

 up in 'em from the pond, thick lots on 'em. I 

 asks him if I could hev a couple, but he said No ; 

 the Squire wouldn't like it if he knowed it. It 

 was in the old Squire's time, mind ye, and he was 

 in furrin parts at the time. That riled me ; fur 

 he rents the pond, and the mill, and the rights of 

 fishing is his. You knows how we stack them reeds, 

 don't ye ? same as shocks of wheat. Well, I cuts a 



