38 FIELD AND FERN. 



Warlock or deranged, and were glad to see him un- 

 dress and lie down in the mifldle of the floor to 

 sleep, with a blanket above him, and his waistcoat 

 folded under his head. At breakfast he was quite 

 lively upon hunting and racing topics, and then he 

 bought twenty score of the best middle horned beasts 

 with good judgment on the Moor. He did not want 

 to be asked for his money, but off" came his coat and 

 waistcoat, and out came his pen -knife, and in a very 

 short space he had ripped Bank of England notes to 

 the amount of .€4,400 out of his waistcoat-lining. 

 He did not breathe his name, and he was only seen 

 once more, at the next tryst, when he bought 120 

 more at rather a higher figure. 



No men lead a more anxious life than the dealers. 

 If it is a dewy morning, and the cattle cannot eat and 

 come round and fresh on to the Moor, it is a certain 

 loss of ten shillings per head. Sometimes a whole 

 lot will get hoven with clover, and whisky or tur- 

 pentine and water have to be used, and perhaps they 

 have to be " stabbed" at last. Drawing and lotting 

 before the tryst is also a job of especial nicety, and 

 the great knack is to make the first lot the biggest 

 if you can. If an experienced grazier had 100 beasts 

 to sell, he would put 60 of the best and only 40 of the 

 worst together. There are no drovers to be compared, 

 for natural talent, to the Irish, either for drawing or 

 making cattle go sweetly along a road. A good 

 steady man goes with two or three in front, to stop 

 the pace ; but the second man has the most respon- 



