THE 



THE PEOPLE AND THE FARMS in 



good catch he'd be able to sit down and rest for six 

 months ? No more work for we ! Yes, many 

 expected that. Anyhow they'd all git something 

 because 'twas promised 'em better pay, better 

 times. But you can't have something for nothing, 

 can you ? Who's to pay for it then ? They don't 

 bother about that ; 'twill have to come somehow 

 maybe from the land. Yes, the land's to pay for 

 everything ! Did any of them town idlers, them that 

 worked a day or two once a week or month did 

 they knaw what the land gave ? Did they knaw what 

 'tis to git up before dawn every day, Sundays as well, 

 and work all day till after dark, all just for a bare 

 living ? But you work the land, they'll say, you don't 

 own it 'tis the landlords we've got to get it out of. 

 'Twill come out of the profits. Will it ? That's just 

 what I'd like to knaw. We pay a pound or two an 

 acre with all the rough and stones, and we pay tithes. 

 And what do the landlords git ? There's rich and 

 poor and big and little among 'em, the same as in 

 everything. If he owns a hundred thousand acres 

 he's well off, however little the land pays. But what 

 if he owns only a few small farms, like most of them 

 in these parts can he live and bring up his sons to 

 be anything better than labourers, or just what we 

 farmers are, out of it ? If I owned this land myself 

 and had to pay all my landlord pays, I don't think I'd 

 be much better off than I am now. I'd have to work 

 the same. What do they mean, then, by saying the 

 land will pay ? I knaw I'll tell you. It means that 

 the land's here and can't be hidden and can't be 



