London to John O Croat's. 219 



two quarts of small beer per day ; not the small beer 

 of New England, made only of hops, ginger and 

 molasses ; but a far more stimulating drink, quite 

 equal to our German lager. This gallon of ale and 

 beer will cost the farmer about 10d., or twenty cents. 

 Where the piece-work laborer furnishes his own malt 

 liquor, it must cost him on an average about an 

 English shilling, or twenty-four cents, a day. 



Two or three of the men, who formed the circle 

 around the fire at The Green Man's, had come to 

 purchase, or pay for, a keg of beer for their harvest 

 allowance. It was to me a matter of half-painful 

 interest to see what vital importance they attached 

 to a supply of this stimulant to see how much more 

 they leaned upon its strength and comfort than upon 

 food. It was not in my heart to argue the question 

 with them, or to seek to dispel the hereditary and 

 pleasant illusion, that beer alone, of all human drinks, 

 could carry them through the long, hot hours of toil 

 in harvest. Besides, I wished to get at their own 

 free thoughts on the subject without putting my 

 own in opposition to them, which might have slightly 

 restricted their full expression. Every one of them 

 held to the belief, as put beyond all doubt or question 

 by the experience of the present and all past gene- 

 rations, that wheat, barley and oats could not be 



