VILLAGE POLITICS 115 



pierce the atmosphere of quiet reserve with 

 which the villager surrounds himself. He is 

 rarely discourteous, and those who persevere 

 in their efforts to gain the friendship of the 

 cottagers are well rewarded. Some of the 

 best and happiest hours in the writer's life 

 have been spent in the humble dwellings of the 

 village poor. How often have I shared in the 

 kind hospitality of a cottage the hot cup of 

 tea, the bread cut thin for my benefit, spread 

 sometimes with butter, sometimes with the 

 cheaper lard. My heart goes out to these 

 kindly friends " si braves, si patients, mais 

 il rfy a pas de V argent " as a Turkish officer 

 once said to me when pointing to his gallant 

 infantry. Nevertheless even those who have 

 been privileged to share the intimate friend- 

 ship of the village poor are quite unable 

 sometimes to determine that treasured secret, 

 the " way they vote." I know a late member 

 of Parliament who quite despaired of the 

 politics of a certain village. So convinced 

 was he that the people in it were hostile to 

 his opinions that he rarely visited it. Never- 

 theless, when a subscription list was started 

 on his behalf among the many hundreds of 

 signatures appended to it he saw the names 

 of practically every labourer in the suspected 

 hamlet. 



