114 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



than I am. And I'm sure I don't want to go out with 

 the governess. I get quite enough of her in school- 

 time." 



Well, that's not quite a right feeling, and I don't like 

 this symptom of incipient superstition, that draws one 

 to think of swimming witches, when if they floated 

 they were guilty and burnt ; if they sank they were 

 drowned, and so in both cases conveniently cleared from 

 the community. However, we'll set out and see how 

 the oak-stripping gets on in the plantation I have to 

 thin. Having arrived upon the scene of operation, the 

 black pointer tugging at the leading-rein all the way 

 with a determination to get on, that I cannot believe to 

 have given absolute pleasure to my little companion — 

 (she never murmured, certainly ; but perchance her 

 dignity forbade it) — we seat ourselves on a rustic 

 bench in the wood, hard upon the spot where the busy 

 band is engaged. How amusing it was to watch the 

 lads climb monkey-like up the slender stems that sway 

 to and fro with their weight, as they peel the upper- 

 most twigs or chip away with a hook the obstnictive 

 sprays, chattering all the while to one another with a 

 twenty-tongue power ! The lowest five feet or so, a 

 gi'own man just hacks around, and then strips the 

 bark, which parts with a wheezy sound from the wood, if 

 it run well (as they technically phrase it) in shape like 

 the cricketer's leg-pads. Then against the tree a boy 

 places his ladder and mounts. When we arrived the 

 gaffer was engaged in making one of the Vough ladders 

 they use for this purpose. It was a good yard wide or 

 more, the side-pieces being straight limbs of a peeled 

 sapling, the three intermediate steps hazel wands, their 

 ends being thrust into holes extemporised by the point of 



