Joe confessed his
ignorance. "Dear me," said the vicar, "to think that in this
nineteenth century any man could be found so ignorant as not to know
the number of the Commandments!" Joe bided his time until the vicar's
attention had been called to the spars, when Joe asked him how many a
bundle contained. It was a problem that the vicar could not solve.
"Dear me," said Joe, "to think that in this 'ere nineteenth century
any man could be found so ignorant as not to know the number of spars
in a bundle!" Joe always added when telling the story, "But there," I
says, "every beggar," I says, "to his trade," I says.
Sometimes a picturesque gipsy would come to the Manor House with
clothes-pegs for sale, and she generally negotiated a deal, for
everybody has a sneaking regard for the gipsies and their romantic
life _sub Jove_. Walking round the farm shortly afterwards I would
come upon the remains of their fire and deserted camp by the roadside
close to the brook, the ground strewn with the peel and refuse from
the materials with which they had supplied themselves gratis, and I
recognized that we had been buying goods made from my own withies.
Even so we did not complain, for no real harm was done to the trees.
The heads of these old pollards are favourite places for birds'-nests,
and all kinds of plants and bushes take root in their decaying fibre,
the seeds having been carried by the birds; so that ivy, brambles,
wild gooseberries, currants, raspberries, nut bushes and elders, can
be seen growing there.
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