' ' Drawing Water !" 187 



village, and is picturesquely overarched with trees, 

 causing a moisture almost always to be over that bit 

 of road. There come the women, as in the days, of 

 patriarchs and prophets in the East, to " draw water; " 

 and if you were a curious visitor, intent on studying the 

 ways of the natives, you would soon discover that if 

 the pulse of the village is beating quick under any 

 love affair, scandal, poaching prosecution, or quarrel, 

 it soon makes itself felt at the village well. No sooner 

 does one woman, probably the leading gossip, in the 

 early forenoon make her appearance, than she is fol- 

 lowed by two or three more, who by some secret 

 instinct know that she has gone before them, and there 

 they stand, tongues going, their pails on the ground, and 

 arms akimbo, while she makes a very long business 

 indeed of working that handle to recover her pail, 

 which goes swinging and making a clatter midway as 

 she unsteadily goes winding and winding. 



Then the same process is repeated by each in turn, 

 while all the others wait ; and then, each with her pail 

 of water, they come slowly along, holding their heads 

 as close together as they can, so that no sweet morsel 

 may be lost to any; and there is usually in these 

 cases a pausing at the door of each, before she enters 

 to resume her domestic work. The village well is the 

 housewives' parliament, where, if formal motions are 

 not made or passed, a common policy is often an- 

 nounced and adopted, alike as to how some farmer is 

 to be dealt with who has chastised Tommy Jones for 

 climbing over the walls of his orchard or trespassing 

 in his fields, or the gamekeeper who has pounced on 

 some of the menfolk laying snares in the wood, or the 

 policeman who has been too officious in taking notice 

 of some one's visits to some other one. 



