THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 255 



and were now pounded in turn. But the bailiff was a 

 shrewd fellow, and when the case came into Court he 

 showed that the knave had over-shot his mark. He 

 had, unfortunately for himself, chosen a frosty night for 

 his operations, and the servant employed to help him 

 walked with one foot "in." Singularly enough, the 

 County Court Judge, before whom the case came, had 

 spent some years in the backwoods, and was enabled 

 so to put many pertinent inquiries which would not 

 have occurred to an ordinary magistrate. Suffice to 

 say, the knave was convicted, and had to pay for his 

 rascality and malice, to his considerable chagrin. 



We have just finished thrashing-out a wheat rick. 

 How jolly it is to watch the fowls and turkeys, and 

 especially the industrious ducks, some half-immersed 

 even in their search after stray grains in the winnowed 

 chaff, and then going occasionally for a drink at the 

 pool, which they gulp down in such epicurean style, 

 throat up, and long beak extended, reminding one 

 of the glutton in old history, who wished his gullet 

 lengthened in order that he might better appreciate 

 his soup ! 



A friend has just turned in who has taken no less than 

 thirty-eight beautiful grayling upon a run of gravel 

 below the house. How tantalizing it is to hear of such 

 success ! There is always something wrong with the 

 water or the tackle when we find time to throw a line. 

 His idle days he does not count, however. 



But here comes a woodman for orders respecting a 

 new plantation, and my sands are run. 



Hurrah ! hurrah ! a glorious flood rising fast, a foot 

 an hour or more, and of such capital consistency, thick 

 with imported matter as pea-soup, and the dear jetties 



