100 HOUND AND HORN 



did ; so that if there was a fox within three miles of 

 the Cross Keys that night, he must have shivered in 

 his kennel. 



The company then broke into knots of three and 

 four, and conversation was very animated, being 

 carried on by some in confidential whispers, and 

 by others in loud declamation that might have been 

 mistaken for quarrelling, but was only meant to 

 emphasise the various propositions laid down. 



The fun was at its height when I noted a hard- 

 featured hill farmer, whom I only knew by sight, 

 trying to fix me with his eye. When he had 

 caught mine, he pushed a gigantic tortoise-shell 

 snuff-mull into my hand. After accepting this form 

 of hospitality, and returning the mull, I found him 

 alongside of me, and was puzzled by his repeating 

 again and again — " Will ye cummanshemenslaige, 

 cummanshemenslaige ? " 



A mutual friend translated the mystic utterance, 

 which turned out to be ^' Come and see my ensilage," 

 an invitation to inspect the contents of a silo which 

 he had recently established to his own satisfaction 

 and his neighbours' wonder and contempt. He was 

 very old-fashioned and conservative in most respects ; 

 but occasionally made an outbreak into modern ex- 

 periments, and this was his latest departure. 



Promising to *' cummanshemenslaige " on Saturday, 

 and being adjured to be in good time in a manner 

 so earnest as to draw up a picture of the possibility 

 of the silo going off in spontaneous combustion 

 before then, and being reminded that *' Saturday 

 was to-morrow, and that to-morrow was Saturday," 

 we made our escape about i A.M. 



