The Mouchers Calendar 133 



put in ' punnets ' by the greengrocers and retailed at 

 a high price. Later the blackberries ripen and form 

 his third great crop ; the quantity he brings in to 

 the towns is astonishing, and still there is always a 

 customer. The blackberry harvest lasts for several 

 weeks, as the berries do not all ripen at once, but 

 successively, and is supplemented by elderberries and 

 sloes. The moucher sometimes sleeps on the heaps 

 of disused tan in a tanyard : tanyards are generally 

 on the banks of small rivers. The tan is said to 

 possess the property of preserving those who sleep on 

 it from chills and cold, though they may lie quite 

 exposed to the weather. 



There is generally at least one such a man as this 

 about the outskirts of market towns, and he is an 

 * original ' best defined by negatives. He is not a 

 tramp, for he never enters the casual wards and never 

 begs — that is, of strangers ; though there are certain 

 farmhouses where he calls once now and then and 

 gets a slice of bread and cheese and a pint of ale. 

 He brings to the farmhouse a duck's ^^^ that has 

 been dropped in the brook by some negligent bird, or 

 carries intelligence of the nest made by some roaming 

 goose in a distant withy-bed. Or once, perhaps, he 

 found a sheep on its back in a narrow furrow, unable 

 to get up and likely to die if not assisted, and by 



