A Flood. 95 



CHAPTER VI. 



HAMLET COTTAGE ASTROLOGY GHOST LORE 



HERBS THE WAGON AND ITS CREW STILES 



THE TRYSTING-PLACE THE THATCHER SMUG- 

 GLERS AGUE. 



In most large rural parishes there is at least one 

 small hamlet a mile or two distant from the main 

 village. A few houses and cottages stand loosely 

 scattered about the fields, no two of them together ; 

 so separated, indeed, by hedges, meadows, and 

 copses, as hardly to be called even a hamlet. The 

 communication with the village is maintained by a 

 long, winding narrow lane ; but foot-passengers fol- 

 low a shorter path across the fields, which in winter 

 is sure to be ankle deep in mud, by the gateways 

 and stiles. The lane, at the same time, is crossed 

 by a torrent, which may spread out to thirty yards 

 wide in the hollow, shallow at the edges, but swift 

 and deep in the middle. 



If 3'ou wait a couple of hours it will subside, as 

 the farmers lower down the brook pull up the hatches 

 to let the flood pass. If you are in a huriy, you 

 must cUmb up into the double-mound beside the lane, 

 and force your w^ay along it between thorns and 

 stoles, till you reach the channel through which the 

 current is rushino-. Across that an old tree trunk 



