lled
"squitch"--and the following summer I had 40 acres of bare-fallow,
repeatedly ploughed, harrowed, and cultivated throughout the whole
season, which, of course, produced nothing by way of return. My
predecessor had found that his arable land was approaching a condition
in which it was difficult to continue the usual course of cropping,
and had expressed his wish to one of the men that all the arable was
grass. He was answered, I was told:

"If you goes on as you be a-going it very soon will be!" I
heard, moreover, that a farming relative of his, on
inspecting the farm, shortly before he gave it up, had
pronounced his opinion that it was "all going to the devil
in a gale of wind!"

I soon recognized that I had a splendid staff of workers, and, under
advice from the late tenant, I selected one to be foreman or bailiff.
Blue-eyed, dark-haired, tall, lean, and muscular, he was the picture
of energy, in the prime of life. Straightforward, unselfish, a natural
leader of men, courageous and untiring, he immediately became devoted
to me, and remained my right hand, my dear friend, and adviser in the
practical working of the farm, throughout the twenty years that
followed. Like many of the agricultural labourers, his remote
ancestors belonged to a class higher in the social scale, and there
were traditions of a property in the county and a family vault in
Pershore Abbey Church. However this might be, William Bell was one of
Nature's gentlemen, and it was apparent in a variety of ways in his
daily life.

Shortly before my coming to Aldington he had received a legacy of
L150, which, without any legal necessity or outside suggestion, he had
in fairness, as he considered it, divided equally between his brother,
his sister and himself--each--and his share was on deposit at a bank.
Seeing that I was young--I was then twenty-two--and imagining that
some additional capital would be useful after all my outlay in
stocking the farm and furnishing the house, he, greatly to my surprise
and delight, offered in a little speech of much delicacy to lend me
his L50. I was immensely touched at such a practical mark of sympathy
and confidence, but was able to assure him gratefully that, for the
present at any rate, I could manage without it. On another occasion,
after a bad season, he voluntarily asked me to reduce his wages, to
which of course I did not see my way to agree.

Bell was always ready with a smart rep