84 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



ment of field labour for the more lucrative work 

 on railways or in mines. I well remember in 

 a Yorkshire village the little group of young 

 men who would frequently walk a couple of 

 miles to watch the expresses dash through 

 the small station in the darkness. The inter- 

 changing lights of green and red and the roar 

 of the train appealed to them, and the luminous 

 smoke of the disappearing engine seemed 

 like a pillar of fire by night to guide these 

 poor village boys in their coming exodus. 

 How pathetic, too, is the presence of quite 

 small children at political meetings. It is 

 sometimes necessary to exclude children under 

 fifteen on such occasions, for the simple reason 

 that otherwise small boys and girls surge 

 through the door the moment it is opened and 

 fill all the best places. These urchins under- 

 stand scarcely a word of the speeches, but there 

 they sit for two hours, quiet and well-behaved, 

 their round eyes fixed on the speaker, and 

 their little hands ready to increase the volume 

 of rustic applause. The unintelligible meeting 

 in the sleepy hours is an event in their little 

 grey lives for which they " sit up ! " The 

 appearance of a political or " gospel " van is a 

 still bigger event for the more remote villages. 

 The men and women collect in little groups 

 almost out of earshot, then gradually, as the 



