TAKING REINS IN HAND. 73 



Laborers 



HAYING decided upon a plan, the next thing to 

 be considered is the personal agency for its 

 administration. 



There was once a time, if we may believe a great 

 many tender pastorals and madrigals such as Kit 

 Marlowe sang, when there were milkmaids : and the 

 sweetest of Overbury's " Characters " is his little 

 sketch of the ' faire damsel, ' who hath such fingers 

 " that in milking a cow, it seemes that so sweet a 

 milk-presse makes the milk the whiter or sweeter." 

 But milkmaids now-a-days are mostly Connaught 

 men, in cowhide boots and black satin waistcoats, 

 who say "begorra," and beat the cows with the 

 milking stool. 



Overbury says of the ancient British type " Her 

 breath is her own, which sents all the yeare long of 

 June, like a newmade haycock." 



And I may say of the present representative 

 His breath is his own, which ' sents all the yeare 

 long ' of proof spirits, like a newmade still. 



Overbury tenderly says " Thus lives she, and all 

 her care is she may die in the spring time, to have 

 store of flowers stucke upon her winding sheet." 



And T, as pathetically : Thus fares he, and all 

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