IX. 



THE VILLAGE WELL. 



UR village boasts of two special sources 

 of gossip. The shop — a general shop, 

 where everything is sold, from tin 

 tacks to red herrings, from tapes and 

 ribbons to ham and eggs, and from 

 needles and thread to boots and shoes, which scent all 

 the place, there being truly nothing like leather — is an 

 interesting centre, where you could do a good deal in 

 the study of character. There come tripping in the 

 wives and daughters of the small farmers round to sell 

 their produce — butter, eggs, and so on — or to exchange 

 them for various commodities they cannot themselves 

 produce and yet cannot do without. There, in front of 

 the shop and the inn next door to it in the evenings 

 the young men congregate after work is done, and 

 straggle in irregular little groups over to the village 

 green, a silent witness of the fact that the vicar and 

 the rest have failed to do what they might long ere 

 this have done — institute a reading-room, well warmed 

 and well lighted, and where a cup of tea or coffee 

 might be had. Parish councils may do something to 

 end this, though the lounging habit formed through 

 generations will be hard to root out. The other centre 

 is the village well, which is beautifully situated in a 

 bit of road that dips down at the west end of the 



