THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. S9 



to remain, "so long as holly's green/' or "till he has 

 counted the sands of the sea." 



" I remember, I remember, liow my blood was made to creep 

 By the stories and the stories of my nurse, destroying sleep." 



But to think that in this enlightened time, with the 

 railway ventilation of old homely mountain-bred fancies, 

 one can find such as the following ! 



A poor fellow, of whom I will say only that he was 

 twenty-four, and the ferrywoman's son, fell backwards 

 from the boat a month since, just a short half-mile from 

 this. Twice he rose to the surface, but there were 

 none to rescue. He could not swim; and the flood 

 was chilling, from its mountain element of snow. His 

 sister had been drowned, under similar circumstances, a 

 few years ago. But can you believe it ? — a fact not- 

 withstanding. His brother and associates (men of 

 forty years' experience) put quicksilver into a new- 

 baked loaf, committed it to the flood, and ran along the 

 river-bank to watch w^here it would stop in its whirling 

 course, because there, of necessity, would the body be 

 found ! However, the loaf outran them, and was lost 

 to sight. The point of disappearance — as a fair critic I 

 am bound to add — was in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of a cider-drinking shop. This plan having failed, 

 they determined to suspend their search for the missing 

 body for three weeks, because it tuas three weeks before 

 they found the sister ! Well, of course, the search 

 having rested, and having been resumed that day three 

 weeks with a will, the body was found, " sanded up," 

 jnst below the spot where he was drowned ; and to 

 spiritual 2^oivers is it attributed that the body was 

 then recovered I Are we advanced, gentle reader, on 



