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A quart of threepenny ale for breakfast, with a hunch of bread and cheese, then out to work again in the weather, let it be what it may. The cowyards have to be cleaned out if not done before breakfast the manure thrown up into heaps, and the heaps wheeled outside. Or, perhaps, the master has given him a job of piece-work to fill up the middle of the day with a hedge to cut and ditch.
Lanterns may be moving in the cowyards and stables; but elsewhere all is quiet the hedger and ditcher cannot see to strike his blow, the ploughs have ceased to move for some time, the labourer's workshop the field is not lighted by gas as the rooms of cities. The shortness of the winter day is one of the primary reasons why, in accordance with ancient custom, wages are lowered at that time.
Fresh seed has been sown, and 'rattles' and similar plants destructive to the hay crop have been carefully eradicated. New gales, new carts, and traps, all exhibit the same movement. The cowyards in many districts were formerly in a very dilapidated condition. The thatch of the sheds was all worn away, mossgrown, and bored by the sparrows.
"I dunno as we're actin' like cowyards, Sir; but just look at 'im," and he pointed at Plummer, who still stood full in the light from the Saloon doorway. "What sort of a Thing is it 'as done that, Sir?" he went on. "An' then yer arsks us ter go up agen! It aren't likely as we're in a 'urry."
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