16 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



had commenced operations I found him hard at work 

 cutting a drain about eighteen inches deep, laying in 

 the tiles one by one, and filling in the earth over them 

 as he went! 



The field I had begun upon was large, and very 

 flat ; and in order to increase artificially the fall, I 

 had calculated to make the drain eighteen inches 

 deeper at the mouth than at the tail. I might as 

 well have calculated for him the distance of a 

 telescopic star. 



' Pve been a-draaning this forty year and more / 

 ought to know summut about it I ' 



Need I tell you who said this ? or give you the 

 whole of the colloquy to which it furnished the 

 epilogue ? 



I had begun, something in this way ' Why, my 

 good friend ! what on earth are you about ? Didn't 

 I tell you to lay the drain open from bottom to top, 

 and that not a tile was to be put in till I had seen 

 it, and tried the levels ? ' &c. &c. 



Old as Adam old as Adam was the whole 

 dialogue it is idle to go through it Conceit versus 

 Prejudice the ignorance of the young against the 

 ignorance of the old the thing that has been, and 

 will be, as long as * the sun and the moon endureth.' 

 It ended as I have said. 



