EARLY MANHOOD 85 



' Toilers of the Field,' he gave some excellent descriptions 

 of the farmer, his conservatism, his pride, and his faith : 



* I believe in the Sovereign, the Church, and the land : 

 the Sovereign being the father of the people in a temporal 

 sense ; the Church in a spiritual sense ; and the land being 

 the only substantial and enduring means of subsistence. 

 Cotton, coal and iron cannot be eaten, but the land 

 gives us corn and beef ; therefore the land stands first 

 and foremost, and the agriculturist, as the tiller of 

 land, possesses an inalienable right which it is his duty 

 to maintain, and in so doing he is acting for the good of 

 the community. I believe that the son and the daughter 

 should obey their parents, and show regard to their 

 wishes, even when legally independent. Also that the 

 servant should obey his employer. The connection between 

 employer and employed does not cease with the payment 

 of wages. It is the duty of the servant to show con- 

 sideration for the advice of the master ; and the master 

 is not free from responsibility as to the education and 

 the comfort of the man. The master is bound by all 

 laws, human and Divine, to pay a fair amount of wages 

 for a day's work. If he does not do so he robs the work- 

 man as much as if he stole the money from his pocket. 

 The workman is equally bound to do his work properly, 

 and in neglecting to do so he robs his employer. To 

 demand more wages than has been earned is an attempt 

 at robbery. Both master and man should respect 

 authority, and abide by its decisions.'* 



This, or something like it, was the brief but difficult 

 creed in which Jefferies had been, with some laxity, 

 brought up. 



In his account of the labourer, which is in greater 

 detail, there is an odd mixture of sentimental triviality, 

 as in the remark that the labourer's cur ' seems as much 

 attached to his master as more high-bred dogs to their 

 owners,' and of realism and charming picturesqueness. 

 He puts forcibly that stubborn question : What, then, 



* Toilers of the Field. 



