THE NEW LABOURER.
This sort of farming has incidentally emancipated the agricultural labourer. Each man has his own unit, whether of cows or hens, shares to some extent in profits, and what is more is almost independent _ of control. Pride increases, originality is encouraged, and labour is not drudgery, though in hard weather endurance is called for. As we stood on the high Down, blown about by all the winds of heaven, a farmer of the neighbourhood recalled ancestral memories, when the labourer was almost a slave if the farmer had a taste for bullying. One delightful anecdote was recalled. A notorious autocrat of the farm took great pleasure in browbeating one of his ploughmen, whose humility encouraged the treatment. One day the hounds ran across the Down. The ploughman unhitched one of his two horses, mounted hill'', and pursued. After a glorious run only he and his master were in at the kill. The ploughman expected a tempest of objurgation and instant dismissal ; but all the farmer said was this : "I didn't think you had it in you. I didn't think you had it in you." And finally: "Look after that horse well when you get him home." If a similar madness came upon the driver of the Buick one day, there would at least be no surprise at his enterprise, whatever else happened, I
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