Harvest- Time. 1 79 



candidly admits that he hates to see a sportsman give 

 way to anger in that manner. The custom of 

 ' peppering' with shot a dog for disobedience or 

 wildness, which was once very common in the field, 

 has however gone a great deal into disuse. 



Shepherds, who often have to visit their flocks in 

 the night — as at this season of the year, while lamb- 

 ing is in progress — who, in fact, sometimes sleep in 

 the fields in a little wooden house on wheels built for 

 the purpose, are strongly suspected of tampering with 

 the hares scampering over the turnips by moonlight. 

 At harvest-time many strange men come into the 

 district for the extra wages of reaping. They rarely 

 take lodgings — which, indeed, they might find some 

 difficulty in obtaining — but in the warm summer 

 weather sleep in the outhouses and sheds, with the per- 

 mission of the owner. Others camp in the open in the 

 corner of a meadow, where the angle made by 

 meeting hedges protects them from the wind, crouch- 

 ing round the embers of the fire which boils the pot 

 and kettle. This influx of strangers is not without its 

 attendant anxiety to the keeper, who looks round 

 now and then to see what is going on. 



Despite the ill-will in their hearts, the labourers 

 are particularly civil to the keeper ; he is, in fact, 

 a considerable employer of labour — not on his own 



