A GOOD HATER. 17 



tips — of course they does ; and much obliged I be ; but 

 I takes it to my missus. Many's the time they've axed 

 me to have a glass of champagne or brandy when we've 

 had lunch under the hedge ; but I says no, and would 

 like a glass of beer best, which I gets, of course. No ; 

 when I drinks, I drinks ale : but most in general I drinks 

 no strong liquor. Great coat ! — cold weather ! I never 

 put no great coat on this thirty year. These here woods 

 be as good as a topcoat in cold weather. Come off the 

 open field with the east wind cutting into you, and get 

 inside they firs and you'll feel warm in a minute. If you 

 goes into the ash wood you must go in farther, because 

 the wind comes more between the poles.' Fresh air, 

 exercise, frugal food and drink, the odour of the earth and 

 the trees — these have given him, as he nears his sixtieth 

 year, the strength and vitality of early manhood. 



He has his faults : notably, a hastiness of temper 

 towards his undermen, and towards labourers and wood- 

 cutters who transgress his rules. He is apt to use his 

 ground-ash stick rather freely without thought of con- 

 sequences, and has got into trouble more than once in 

 that way. When he takes a dislike or suspicion of a man, 

 nothing will remove it ; he is stubbornly inimical and 

 unforgiving, totally incapable of comprehending the idea 

 of loving an enemy. He hates cordially in the true pagan 

 fashion of old. He is full of prejudices, and has some 

 ideas which almost amount to superstitions ; and, though 



