Had I not been present it must have fallen upon him, for not
expecting the end was so near he had not been watching the signs.
Though not a tall tree, it was a very stout and heavy trunk, and the
tap-root on inspection proved to be partly rotten.
"Forth into the fields I went,
And Nature's living motion lent
The pulse of hope to discontent.
"I wonder'd at the bounteous hours,
The slow result of winter showers:
You scarce could see the grass for flowers.
"I wonder'd, while I paced along:
The woods were fill'd so full with song,
There seemed no room for sense of wrong."
Such is Tennyson's description of a spring day in the fields and
woods, and nothing more beautiful could be written. And so it was with
joy that my men and carter boys with waggons and teams started early
on the spring mornings to bring home the newly purchased hop-poles
from the distant woods. These poles are sold by auction in stacks
where they are cut, and the buyer has to cart them home. Usually,
after a successful hop year they were in great demand; prices would
rise in proportion, and the early seller did well, but when the later
sales came sometimes, the demand being satisfied, there would be a
heavy fall in values, and as a cunning buyer expressed it, "The poles
lasted longer than the money.
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