LOW PRICES AND LONG FACES. 131 



cylating and confidential-like, 'From fifteen bushels 

 to fifty/ says you ; and we all laughed, for we knew 

 your look : and I know'd how you'd say it, and what 

 you meant, pretty well. Yes, yes ! I heerd o' that. 

 He didn't like it, however. I think if you'd 'a' said 

 thirty he'd 'a' had the farm." 



"No!" 



"Not? Well, I don't know. Dobson said he 

 seemed smartish like, and he didn't mislike the look 

 o' the stubbles, nor the rick-yard neither. What did 

 he say to your crop o' Swedes in the forty-acre piece, 

 the Brickfield-close I think you call it ? Didn't he 

 think them big enough ?" 



" He didn't tell me : he couldn't, indeed : for he 

 only looked over the hedge at them, saying that ' it 

 wasn't a Turnip farm.' As he spoke to himself rather 

 than to me, I didn't gainsay him. But as it takes 

 me a long time to say anything smart, I accepted that 

 as a notice, and prepared my answer for what I fore- 

 saw was coming when we had done riding through the 

 stubbles : and as I think his hoofs were on every acre 

 of them, I had time enough for preparation." 



A short silence ensued. The ash-stick and the spur 

 seemed to work less emphatically. The horses dropped 

 into a walk : they were nearing the town of - , 



K2 



