ivate chosen spots of the valley and reduce them to
order. They were not wedded to the place; only if it gave them a chance
of getting food and shelter were they likely to remain. Soon, however,
that first uncertainty was forgotten. Their peasant customs fitted the
environment; there was no danger of molestation; already to their
children the valley began to feel like a permanent home. As years went
on that feeling deepened, wrapped the people round in an unthought-of
security, and permitted them, here and there, to go beyond the necessary
peasant crafts and think of what was pleasant as well as necessary.
Gardens were trimmed into beauty, grape-vines were grown for the sake of
wine-making, and bees were kept for the sake of honey and mead. In the
cottages decent furniture and implements began to accumulate; the women
decorated their men's blouses with pretty smocking; the children were
taught old-fashioned lore because it was old-fashioned and their
inheritance; time-honoured customs of May-day and of Christmas were not
ignored. So during a few generations the old country thrift and its
simple civilization were kept alive, until the loss of the common made
the old thrift no longer possible and introduced the new. Lastly, and
within recent years, a new population has come, taking possession, with
a new civilization which is by no means simple; and now once more a
sense of unsettledness is upon the cottagers, although for the most part
they remain here. It is, however, an unsettledness very unlike that of
the earlier time. Instead of hope in it there is anxiety; instead of
striking deeper root in the valley, the people's hold grows shallower.
The agreeable peasant arts have faded out accordingly. The whole peasant
mode of life is all but forgotten. To-day we have here not a distinct
group of people living by customs which their singular circumstances
justify, but numerous impoverished families living provisionally from
hand to mouth, because of the possibility of further changes to be
thrust upon them. While they wait they still work, yet without
pleasantness in their lives. As their homes by neglect have grown shabby
and squalid, so their industry has become calculating and sordid. Little
remains to them now but their own good temper to keep their life from
being quite joyless.

IV

THE RESULTING NEEDS

XIV

THE INITIAL DEFECT

Keeping pace with the alterations in their circumstances, a great mental