the other is a
browsing field in which twenty or thirty head of cattle are feeding.
Then let some evil-disposed person open the gate between these two
fields, and the thirty head of cattle get into the cornfield--what
happens? Why, L20 worth of damage can be done in a single night. And
things like this were often happening in my father's days, and thus he
was kept poor.

But things changed after I got George Dawe on the Barton. His eyes
seemed to be everywhere, and always in my interests.

Let me give one example (and then I will soon get on to my story proper)
how George Dawe saved me a large amount of money, and at the same time
helped me to teach the Tresidders a lesson.

It was the June after I had got William Dawe's family to live with me.
We had had several dry weeks, so that the fields had become parched and
bare, and we were anxious lest the sheep should not have enough grass.
One field had been planted with vatches, which, as every farmer knows,
grow quickly and are cut for the horses.

"William," I said to Dawe one day, "I am afraid we shall have to
sacrifice a hay field. The browsing fields are all brown; the sheep
can't get enough to eat. We must be careful not to turn them there when
the dew is on the grass, though, or they'll get vlayed."

"I wudden trouble, Maaster Jasper; ship c'n nibble a lot on a dewy
mornin', and we sh'll git rain zoon, I reck'n."

"Well, as you think best; but I fancy we'd better turn the biggest lot
into the 'Sheeps' Close' to-night." The "Sheeps' Close" was the name of
one of the best meadows, which at this time was very bare owing to the
long spell of dry, hot weather.

Well, I had to ride to Truro that afternoon, so I did not get home till
late at night. I found George Dawe waiting up for me.

"Anything the matter, George?" I asked.

"Iss, ther es, Maaster Jasper."

"What?" I asked.

"The Trezidders be up to the ould gaame. When I wos comin' 'ome from St.
Eve two or dree 'ours agone, I 'eared young Nick plannin' ev it weth
Buddle."

"Explain, George," I said.

George told his story, with the result that we made our way to the
"Sheeps' Close" and hid behind the hedge. Just before dawn--that is,
about three o'clock in the morning--we saw two men coming toward the
gateway. We saw them unfasten the gate and open it wide, then we heard
one say to the other, "Now let's fetch up the sheep, and the fool will
be worth a bit less money in a few hours."

Then they went aw