learnt it from an elder brother of one of them, and had
practised it in a shed; and at my request the leader consented to write
out the piece, and in due time he brought me his copy. I have mislaid
the thing, and write from memory; but I recall enough of it to affirm
that he had never understood, or even cared to fix a meaning to, the
words--or sounds, rather--which he and his companions had gabbled
through as they prowled around the kitchen clashing their wooden swords.
That St. George had become King William was natural enough; but what is
to be said of changing the Turkish Knight into the Turkey Snipe? That
was one of the "howlers" this youth perpetrated, amongst many others
less striking, perhaps, but not less instructive. The whole thing
showed plainly where the difficulty lay at the night-school. The
breaking up of the traditional life of the village had failed to supply
the boys either with the language or with the mental habits necessary
for living successfully under the new conditions. Some of these boys
were probably the sons of parents unable to read and write; none of them
came from families where those accomplishments were habitually practised
or much esteemed.

The argument, thus illustrated by the state of the boys, extends in its
application to practically the whole of the village. "Book-learning" had
been very unimportant to the peasant with his traditional lore, but it
would be hard to exaggerate the handicap against which the modern
labourer strives, for want of it. Look once more at his position. In the
new circumstance the man lives in an environment never dreamt of by the
peasant. Economic influences affecting him most closely come, as it
were, vibrating upon him from across the sea. Vast commercial and social
movements, unfelt in the valley under the old system, are altering all
its character; instead of being one of a group of villagers tolerably
independent of the rest of the world, he is entangled in a network of
economic forces as wide as the nation; and yet, to hold his own in this
new environment, he has no new guidance. Parochial customs and the
traditions of the village make up the chief part of his equipment.

But for national intercourse parochial customs and traditions are
almost worse than none at all--like a Babel of Tongues. National
standards have to be set up. We cannot, for instance, deal in Winchester
quarts and Cheshire acres, in long hundreds and baker's dozens; we have
no use