OLD COUNTRY FOLK 241 



: Then I was hired for a year to go to a farm where 

 the master was a widower, and after that at another farm 

 where there was two ladies. They was the particularest 

 ladies I ever knowd. It ud do any girl good to go and 

 live with such as they. There was the oak stairs — it was 

 always a clean pail of water to every two steps ; and I'd as 

 much pride in it as they had. 



' My wages never got as fur as four pound. Best place 

 I ever lived in was at Mr. Woods's at Hambledon. Quietest 

 and best master I ever lived with. There was the red- 

 brick kitchen-floor. I used to flow he down with a green 

 broom ; best of brooms for bricks ; makes the floors red. 

 You makes 'em of the green broom as grows on the 

 common. After I left, there was always a bit of green 

 holly at Christmas, and any win'fall apples he always 

 give me. Ah ! he was a good master. He minded me 

 when I was married, and time and again he sent me a 

 bit of beef — till he died — and then my beef died. 



' One farm I lived in was nigh some rough ground 

 where tramp people lived, and my missis use to send me 

 out with beautiful gruel to the tramp women in the 

 tents when there was a baby come. It was a very old 

 farmhouse where I lived, with gurt beams athurt the 

 ceilin'. 



' But Mr. Woods he was the best man. One day after 

 I left him I was at his place, and he had a cold leg of 

 mutton, and what does he do but take a knife and cut'n 

 in two and give me one piece. 



' And one time when bread was so dear he says, " Here's 

 a shillin' to get a loaf" — Ah 1 we soon cut he up. 



' I'm seventy-six, and some days don"t know how to 



move about. The rheumatics they do crucify me some- 



2 H 



