150 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



down at five-and-thirty ! Egad, I can't give it away ! 

 and I remember my poor old father, and that's 

 five-and-twenty year ago, in the war-time, as the 

 bushel o' Wheat dropped into the sack, saying to me, 

 " There's a guinea, Ben ! " and " There's another I " as 

 the next fell in ; and so it went on. That was farm- 

 ing, that was ! I'm blest if I don't think they got 

 their own price, and ours along ! ' 



' You've hit the very truth, I do believe : they 

 forgot to take their share of the per contra, when the 

 war was over. They made a WILL, bequeathing 

 that to us; for that, I imagine, will be the end 

 of it.' 



' What's the use of making a Will, when you've 

 nothing to leave ? They should have left us another 

 war, and short harvests ; that 'ould have done better 

 than any laws, I fancy, to keep up prices. ' 



1 Postponed the change, perhaps; not prevented 

 it : it was inevitable some day. The fairer course 

 would have been to have accepted it when it fell 

 due, and begun afresh, with some of those guineas 

 in hand that you speak of.' 



* Well : it has beenbut a crumbling wall for twenty 

 years, ever since the War ended, with now and then 

 a bit of a check, in spite of all the laws to prevent 



