The blackberry harvest lasts for several weeks, as
the berries do not all ripen at once, but successively, and is
supplemented by elderberries and sloes. The moucher sometimes sleeps on
the heaps of disused tan in a tanyard; tanyards are generally on the
banks of small rivers. The tan is said to possess the property of
preserving those who sleep on it from chills and cold, though they may
lie quite exposed to the weather.
There is generally at least one such a man as this about the outskirts
of market towns, and he is an 'original' best defined by negatives. He
is not a tramp, for he never enters the casual wards and never
begs--that is, of strangers; though there are certain farmhouses where
he calls once now and then and gets a slice of bread and cheese and a
pint of ale. He brings to the farmhouse a duck's egg that has been
dropped in the brook by some negligent bird, or carries intelligence of
the nest made by some roaming goose in a distant withy-bed. Or once,
perhaps, he found a sheep on its back in a narrow furrow, unable to get
up and likely to die if not assisted, and by helping the animal to gain
its legs earned a title to the owner's gratitude.
He is not a thief; apples and plums and so on are quite safe, though the
turnip-tops are not: there is a subtle casuistry involved here--the
distinction between the quasi-wild and the garden product.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127