sness. I have known instances in which a father, aware that a
criminal assault has been attempted by another labourer upon a tender
child of twelve, has refused to prosecute, and the brutal offender would
have escaped without the slightest punishment had not the clergyman
heard of the story.

The slow years roll by--they are indeed slow in an agricultural
village--and the girl, now fifteen, has to go regularly to work in the
fields; that is, if the family be not meantime largely increased. She
has in this latter case plenty of work at home to assist her mother.
Cottagers are not over-clean, but they are not wilfully dirty in their
houses; and with a large family there is much washing and other domestic
matters to attend to, which the mother, now fast growing feeble, cannot
get through herself. In harvest the women get up at four or earlier, and
do their household work before starting for the fields. But, perhaps, by
this time another girl has grown up sufficiently to nurse baby, mind the
young ones, and do slave's work generally. Then the elder daughter goes
to the fields daily when there is work to be had. In arable districts
the women do much work, picking couch grass--a tedious operation--and
hoeing. They never or rarely milk now. In the dead of winter there is
nothing for women to do. At this age--fifteen or sixteen--the girl
perhaps goes out to service at some farmhouse. If she is fortunate
enough to enter the house of one of the modern class of farmers, it is a
lucky day for her when she begins indoor labour. It is to be feared that
the life of a girl of this kind in the old time, and not so long ago, in
the houses of the poorer order of farmers, was a rough one indeed. But
much of that is past, never to return, and our business is with the
present. Where they have a dairy she has to clean the buckets and
milk-cans and other utensils, to help turn the cheeses, and assist the
dairymaid (a most important personage this last) in all kinds of ways.
The work is coarse and rude, but it only lasts a portion of the day, and
she has regular and ample meals. The bacon and cheese soon begin to tell
upon her. The angular bones disappear, the skinny arms grow round, and
presently enormously fat--not much the prettier, perhaps, but far more
pleasant to look at. Her face loses the pinched expression; her cheeks
become full, and round, and rosy; in every way her physical frame
improves. It is wonderful what a difference a few mont