Part 3 (1/2)

peas!_ I never heared talk o' such a thing! I told the gal to go back and tell 'n to save his money till they was cheaper”

_June 13, 1899_--But three years later Bettesworth seeed his policy On June 13 once more he had peas to boast of, and already for so to be at them

”Look, there's a nice pea, and there,” she would say, handling the dangling pods

But Bettesworth would answer, ”Yes, they be; and you let 'em bide”

”For the sake of a shi+llin' now,” he explained to oin'

to have that haulm spoilt, and lose two or three shi+llin's later on”

His brother-in-law agreed that he was right It was all reported to ht, Fred,' he says 'You better get along without that shi+llin' now, and have two or three later on'”

Old Mrs Skinner, too, cohbour who had picked a few peas very early, and ruined his crop; for in the hot weather the juicy haul

The weather was glorious just then, yet ill for our sandy gardens

”As blue as a whetstone,” said Bettesworth, in forecast of what the cabbage crop would be, should rain not soon corass slippery and dry! _'Twas_ a hot day yest'day, no arden when Mrs Skinner cohed at me 'Well, Fred, you _be_ a purty picture!' There was the sweat all trinklin' down my arms, an' the dust caked on But she did adht leavin' 'eal, 'You let 'eive the word”

III

_October 7, 1899_--I havethe paper

Notwithstanding this bad habit, he and Bettesworth had been on excellent terms of friendshi+p It was to Noah that Bettesworth had turned, for example, when I lent him those copies of the _Daily Chronicle_ in which the first particulars of Nansen's voyage in the _Fram_ were published Unable to read hih,” he said, ”or else I be scholard enough”), he invited Noah and Noah's wife to come on the Sunday and read to him the explorer's narrative

”We started,” said he, ”about two o'clock, and there they was, turn and turn about, as hard as ever they could read up to half-past five”

The evening was spent in raising the envy of other neighbours ”They wanted to borry the papers, but I says, 'No, they ben't mine to lend'”

The readers themselves seem to have conceived an intense admiration for Nansen, whose bed of stones especially excited Bettesworth's iination

”_I_'ve had some hard lay-downs in my time,” he exclaimed, ”but _that!_ Gahat they poor fellersafterwards, Noah was called in again to help enjoy a seedsh from cover to cover

Yet Noah proved to be a treacherous friend, after all I have no record of the occurrence, but I think it an to covet Bettesworth's pleasant cottage, and by offering the owner a higher rent succeeded in getting possession of it Bettesworth was obliged to quit He took a cottage in a little row at three-and-sixpence a week, where he was coh for about a couple of years At the end of that period, however, certain difficulties over the water-supply beca the well dry--and other discoan in the autuular place, this parish The narrow valley it occupies is that of a small water-course commonly known as ”The Lake,” which in summer is a dry bed of sand, but in winter becorow quite turbulent at ties they have cut deep into the northern side of the valley, and now for some two miles that northern side, all warm and sunny, slopes doards the stream, and there breaks off in precipitous sand-banks which inthe stream and make it inaccessible But not in all places There are various gaps in the sand-banks, where the rains and stororges and warm secluded hollows, dohich footpaths wind steeply, or narrow bue or other thrown across the streaes cluster thickest; there they form little haers

Such, indeed, is my own case: hundreds of my fellow-parishi+oners half a ers to e parish The bluffs which separate the hollows are not unpeopled; they have their cottages and gardens dotted over them without order at the caprice of former peasant owners All sorts of footpaths and tracks connect these habitations, but there are few roads, and those are deep in sand For the labouring people do not interchange visits and pay calls; they just go to work and coain, each to his own place At home, they look out upon their own particular hollow, and upon little besides; or, living high up on a bluff, they get outlook upon the other side of the ins--that other side--in narrow ently to a ridge fringed with cottages In addition to these dwellings, there are a few hovels down by the stream itself, with their backs stuck into the sand-cliffs, and with gardens between cliff and streaht almost jump across them A second jump would take him over the stream into thepopulation ees are scarce, as Bettesworth now found Moreover, his choice was restricted There were reasons against his going to the upper end of the valley It was more newly peopled by labourers from the toho had never known, or else had lost, the older peasant traditions which Bettesworth could still cherish--in e Of course, that was not how he explained his distaste; he only expressed a dislike for the society of the upper valley ”They be a roughish lot up there,” he would say The fact was, he did not know many of them intimately, from which it rated

Besides, he wanted a cottage not a o ho on

If he was growing old, she was older; and orse, she was subject to epileptic fits There were days when he worried about her all the ti to find her fallen down in a fit It was necessary, therefore, that if he moved it should be not far away His lastbluff to a hollow further down streaet back