" IN THE HARD GREY WEATHER." 35 



with only two teeth, which is about as service- 

 able in answering his requirements as a single- 

 horned bootjack for any purpose. Some of the 

 women wear petticoats as short as the garments 

 of the Boulogne fishwives, and their limbs are 

 as ruddy as the legs of French partridges 

 from being constantly pickled in the sea brine. 

 Most of them look what they are the drudg- 

 ing helpmates of field labourers ; a few have 

 retained a certain comeliness of aspect, which 

 will not last long under the hard struggle for 

 food and shelter they are obliged to go through. 

 The hard grey weather has grown if possible 

 harder during the night; and next day at 

 dawn the fowler is up and off to a different 

 moorland, accompanied by a little man who 

 has a sincere faith in Robinson Crusoe and 

 Indian adventures. The excursion has a won- 

 derfully romantic air to this bright urchin, who 

 is very learned in the details of savage practices 

 (as related in boys' story books), and who pro- 

 poses at an early hour to pluck a snipe and 

 cook him over a fire of reeds. He has brought 

 a box of matches in his pocket for the pur- 

 pose, conceding that we had lost the art of 



D 2 



