138 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



long winter evenings were pleasantly beguiled. 

 It is somewhat strange that this occupation 

 was one much indulged in by the poorer clergy 

 who guided the spiritual lives of the yeomen. 

 Of one of these as a type we shall speak. He 

 assisted his neighbours at hay time and shear- 

 ing, though instead of receiving money he 

 was paid " in kind." He also made wills, 

 butter-prints, and was Notary Public to the 

 whole parish. For these little offices he in- 

 variably chose wool as his reward ; and 

 for a reason. The tributary fleeces he was 

 wont to collect by the aid of a shaggy white 

 Galloway, with which he always tramped the 

 fells. Across the back of the old horse were 

 two panniers crosswise, in which the fleeces 

 were carried. The annals of his quiet neigh- 

 bourhood tell how for eight hours each day 

 he was occupied in teaching the children, 

 his seat being within the communion rails. 

 While they repeated their lessons by his side, 

 he was busily engaged with his spinning-wheel. 

 Every evening, too, he continued the same 

 labour, exchanging by way of variety the small 

 wheel at which he sat, for the large one on 

 which wool is spun, the spinner stepping to 



