THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FAR^M. 305 



field. These, sawn into thin slabs, will provide us with 

 the means of making a permanent shed to lift np and 

 down within pillars, upon the Lancashire plan, accord- 

 ing to the depth of crop ; so out of evil shall come good. 

 But as to the intended abundance of meadow hay ; 

 what mean we ? Why, last year, being over-persuaded, 

 we allowed the grazing of our land until March if not 

 April, being assured by the natives that the crop along 

 the river would not suffer in the least thereby. But it 

 did though. Dwarfed and stunted by this too harsh 

 treatment, it scarcely so recovered in places as to be 

 worth cutting. This year no ewe nor lamb goes upon 

 the ground ; and what a top-dressing it shall have 

 through its harrow-shaken crevices, under guise of 

 guano, wood ashes, earth mould, and the like ! The 

 straits to which we have been put since August last 

 have been a top-dressing which our wits will not^forget. 

 " We have been working like donkeys, sir, all the 

 morning," old Melon remarked to me just now, as I 

 found him blowing like a grampus, and mopping his 

 extensive brow. This remark had reference to himself 

 and his assistant. But upon it may be based some 

 reflections. Could he mean that they had been work- 

 ing reluctantly with their ears put back, and discharging 

 an occasional quick kick round the corner at their 

 nearest attendant ? Or did he mean that like the poor 

 faithful little thing, that you see occasionally in the 

 small cart with wheels rut-imbedded, they had been 

 struggling against hope in patient endurance ? Just so 

 I expect, for the employment in which they had been 

 engaged was wheeling some great stones from a distant 

 wood for the adornment and furnishing of a new fernery 

 upon which the Missus has set her heart. However, 



