Oby and his System. 1 2 1 



lickspittles as be always messing round after a fer- 

 reting job or some wood-cutting, and the Christmas 

 charities. It be enough to make a man sick to see 

 they. This yer parish be a very big un, and a be 

 preserved very high, and I can do three times as much 

 in he as in the next one, as ain't much preserved. So 

 I sticks to this un. 



' Of course they tried to drive I out of un, and 

 wanted the cottage ; but granny had all the receipts 

 for the quit-rent, and my lard and all the lawyers 

 couldn't shove us out, and there we means to bide. 

 You have seed that row of oaks as grows in the hedge 

 behind our house. One of 'em leaned over the roof, 

 and one of the limbs was like to fall ; but they 

 wouldn't cut him, just to spite us, and the rain drip- 

 ping spoilt the thatch. So I just had another chimney 

 built at that end for an oven, and kept up the smoke 

 till all the tree that side died. I've had more than 

 one pheasant through them oaks, as draws 'em: I had 

 one in a gin as I put in the ditch by my garden. 



' They started a tale as 'twas I as stole the lambs a 

 year or two ago, and they had me up for it ; but they 

 couldn't prove nothing agen me. Then they had 

 me for unhinging the gates and drowning 'em in the 

 water, but when they was going to try the case they 

 two young farmers as you know of come and said as 



